rage about like a mad bull."

"Still, it was our fault," she said. "We ought to have stopped. His
clothes are torn. How much ought we to pay?"

"Nothing at all," said Sherlock. "Don't you let yourself be
blackmailed."

She didn't answer or look in his direction, thus emphasising the fact
that she had asked her question of me, not of him.

"Fifty francs would be generous," I said, "to buy the fellow a new suit
of clothes and pay for a bottle of liniment. With that to-morrow he
would be thanking his stars for the accident. But as Mr. Payne was
driving, hadn't you better let him talk to them? It isn't right that two
men should stand by and let the burden fall on a lady."

"_You_ speak to them, Brown; I give you _carte blanche_," said she, and
we faced the mob together.

"If you threaten us," I said, "you shall have nothing. We were going
fast, but your horse is badly broken, and is more of a danger on the
road than an automobile. If you behave yourself and tell your friends to
do likewise, this lady wishes to give you fifty francs to buy new
clothes in place of those which have suffered in this accident. But we
don't intend to be bullied."

"Fifty francs!" shrieked the man. "Fifty francs for a man's life! Bah!
You aristocrats! Five hundred francs; not a sou less, or you do not stir
from this place. Fifty francs! _Mazette!_"

"You are talking nonsense, and you know it," said I roughly. "Stand out
of our way, or we will send for the police."

Now this was bluff, for the last thing to be desired was the presence of
the police. I had been careful to get in Paris the necessary _permis de
conduire_ from the Department of Mines, without which it is illegal to
drive a motor vehicle of any sort in France. But I had heard Payne
boasting to Miss Randolph that he never bothered himself about a lot of
useless red tape; it was only milksops and amateurs who did that. I, as
Brown, had kept "my master's" papers, but it would do more harm than
good to our cause, should it come to an investigation, if I attempted to
pass over my permit to Payne. Were the police to appear on the scene
their first demand would be for papers, and if the man who had been
driving were unable to produce any, not all our just complaints of the
peasants' unlawful threats would help us. Payne would be liable to
arrest and imprisonment; not only would he be heavily fined, but we
should all be detained, perhaps for weeks; and as French magistrates
have as