er I can."

Miss Deriot shook her pretty head.

"I'm coming with you," she said. "Carry on."

"But, my dear----"

"I often wish I wasn't so obstinate." She spoke meditatively. "But we're
all like that. Mules aren't in it with the Deriots," she added, with a
dazzling smile.

"Neither, apparently, are cucumbers," said I, and with that I began to
descend the rough stairs, stepping as delicately as I could.

Half-way down I turned to look at my companion, and at that moment the
step upon which I was standing gave way. The scrambling sounds which
proclaimed my fall were followed by the rasping protest of yielding
cloth, and I came to rest six feet from the road at the expense of a
pre-War coat, which had caught the corner of one of the unplaned risers.
All had been so still, that in that hollow place the noise could not
have failed to attract the attention of any one who was within earshot,
and I lay for a moment where I had fallen, straining my ears for the
sound of footsteps or voices.

"Are you all right?" whispered a soft voice above me.

I turned my head and nodded. Miss Deriot, standing with clasped hands,
heaved a sigh of relief and prepared to continue her descent.

Gingerly I stepped down into the sandy road and started to cross it
a-tiptoe.

Facing towards Bloodstock, the car presented her off side to us.

With the utmost caution I proceeded to induct myself into the driver's
seat. As I sat down, Miss Deriot slipped in front of the bonnet and
round to the near side. She was opening the high side-door and my foot
was on the self-starter, when I heard the murmur of voices.

We were not a second too soon.

The moment I had started the engine there was a cry followed by the
clattering of heavy shoes upon cobbles, and as the car slid into the
road a man in a grey hat came tearing out of the inn's courtyard, waving
his arms and yelling like one possessed. Hard on his heels came pounding
his supporters, three of them, all bellowing like bulls.

So much I saw for myself. Agatha, kneeling on the seat by my side, kept
me informed of their movements till we swept out of sight.

"He's simply dancing. The one in the grey hat, I mean. Now he's shaking
his fist at us. Oh, he's mad. He's thrown his hat on the ground. O-o-o,
Boy, he's trying to kick one of the others. Oh, I wish you could
see...." The merry voice dissolved into peals of laughter.

Then the road curled, and Agatha turned left about and settled her