ephant-power,' they says; and they goes 'Haw, haw!' and Henery drops
his clutch in, and off he goes after that car."

Alfred lit another cigarette as a preliminary to the climax.

"So they run for miles, and all the time there's the track ahead of 'em,
and Henery keeps lettin' her out, thinkin' that he'll never ketch that
car. They went through a town so fast, the old man he says, 'What house
was that we just passed,' he says. At last they come to the top of the
big 'ill, and there's the tracks of the big car goin' straight down
ahead of 'em.

"D'you know that road? It's all cut out of the side of the mountain, and
there's places where if she was to side-slip you'd go down 'undreds
of thousands of feet. And there's sharp turns, too; but the surface is
good, so Henery he lets her out, and down they go, whizzin' round the
turns and skatin' out near the edge, and the old cove sittin' there
enjoyin' it, never knowin' the danger. And comin' to one turn Henery
gives a toot on the 'orn, and then he heard somethin' go 'toot, toot'
right away down the mountain.

"'Bout a mile ahead it seemed to be, and Henery reckoned he'd go another
four miles before he'd ketch it, so he chances them turns more than
ever. And she was pretty hot, too; but he kept her at it, and he hadn't
gone a full mile till he come round a turn about forty miles an hour,
and before he could stop he run right into it, and wot do you think it
was?"

I hadn't the faintest idea.

"A circus. One of them travellin' circuses, goin' down the coast; and
one of the elephants had sore feet, so they put him in a big waggon,
and another elephant pulled in front and one pushed behind. Three
elephant-power it was, right enough. That was the waggon wot made the
big track. Well, it was all done so sudden. Before Henery could stop, he
runs the radiator--very near boiling she was--up against the elephant's
tail, and prints the pattern of the latest honeycomb radiator on the
elephant as clear as if you done it with a stencil.

"The elephant, he lets a roar out of him like one of them bulls
bellerin', and he puts out his nose and ketches Henery round the neck,
and yanks him out of the car, and chucks him right clean over the cliff,
'bout a thousand feet. But he never done nothin' to the old bloke."

"Good gracious!"

"Well, it finished Henery, killed him stone dead, of course, and the old
man he was terrible cut up over losin' such a steady, trustworthy man.
'Never get