at evening at Angouleme.

"For the last time," said Jonah, "I appeal to you all to let that
dog-eared mountebank rake over his muck-heap, and attend to me."

My brother-in-law addressed Adele.

"It is," he said, "a discreditable but incontrovertible fact that
saints have always been reviled. I suppose it's jealousy." He turned
to his wife. "By the way, did you pack my _aureola_? I left it
hanging on the towel-rail."

"If," said Daphne, "you're referring to your body-belt, it's with your
bed-socks."

"And why not between your flannel vests?" said her husband. "The grey
ones we found at Margate, I mean. With the imitation bone buttons.
Ah, here we are. Now, if half a franc's no earthly, what'll who give
me for two-thirds of fifty centimes?"

Jonah sank into a chair and closed his eyes.

"Look here," said I desperately. "Once for all, are we going to stay
at Bordeaux, or are we going right through?"

"I think we'd all rather go right through," said Jill.

"I know I would," said her brother. "And if Boy's leg was all right, I
shouldn't hesitate. I'll answer for Ping. But, frankly, with Berry
driving, I doubt if Pong'll fetch up. I mean, two hundred and
twenty-two miles takes some biting off."

There was a pregnant silence. Then--

"He'll never do it," said Daphne.

Her husband, who was still busy with his paper, looked up defiantly.
Then he took a thousand-franc note and laid it apart from its fellows
upon the table.

"I will wager that shekel," he said deliberately, "that, with a start
of one hour to-morrow, Pong reaches Pau before Ping."

There was a gasp of astonishment.

"Done," said Jonah. "What's more, I'll bet you another you don't get
in before ten."

Berry raised his eyes to heaven.

"An insult," he said. "Never mind. Your dross shall wipe it out. I
take you."

"And I," said I, not to be outdone, "will put another on Pong for the
double."

I felt that my honour was involved. After all, if I had not trained
the mount, I was training the jockey.

"Right," said Jonah. "Will you both pay me now, or wait till you're
out of hospital?"

"I think," said I, "we'll have a run for our money."

The bets were made, and there was an end of it. But when we were again
in the car, and my brother-in-law was threading his way out of Tours, I
began to repent my rashness.

Considering that, when he took the wheel at Boulogne, Berry had had
only three lessons in the management of a car