rts in Surrey and Sussex. Sunday,
therefore, promised developments.

Medenham seemed to think that his aunt, Lady St. Maur, would be
waiting for him on the doorstep. As no matronly figure materialized in
that locality, he alighted, and obeyed a brass-lettered injunction to
"knock and ring." Then he disappeared inside the house, and remained
there so long that Dale's respect for the law began to weaken. The
chauffeur had been given a racing certainty for the first race; the
hour was nearing twelve, and every road leading to Epsom Downs would
surely be congested.

His lordship came out, alone, and it was clear that the unexpected had
happened.

"Nice thing!" he said, with the closest semblance to a growl that his
good-natured drawl was capable of. "The whole show is busted, Dale.
Her ladyship is in bed with her annual bilious attack--comes of eating
forced strawberries, she says. And she adores strawberries. So do I.
There's pounds of 'em in that luncheon basket. Who's going to eat
'em?"

Dale foresaw no difficulties in that respect, but he did realize at
once that his master cared little about racing, and, so far as Epsom
was concerned, would abandon the day's excursion without a pang. He
grew desperate. But, being something of a stoic, he kept his feelings
in check, and played a card that could hardly fail.

"You will find plenty of youngsters on the hill who will be glad of
them, my lord," said he.

"You don't tell me so! Kiddies at the Derby! Well, why not? It shows
what a stranger I am in my own land that I should never have seen the
blessed race. Right ahead then, Dale; we must back the King's horse
and arrange a school treat. But I'll take the wheel. Can you tuck your
legs over that basket? I'm not going to sit alone in the tonneau. And,
who knows?--we may pick up someone on the road."

Starting on the switch, the car sprang off towards Piccadilly. Dale
sighed in his relief. With ordinary luck, they ought to reach Epsom
before one o'clock, and racing did not begin till half an hour later.
He left wholly out of reckoning the mysterious element in human
affairs that allots adventures to the adventurous, though close
association with Viscount Medenham during the past nine months ought
to have taught him the wisdom of caution. Several chapters of a very
interesting book might be supplied by his lordship's motoring
experiences on the Continent, and these would only supplement the
still more checkered biography