Moreover, the mare
caracolled ornamentally in the rays of the acetylene, and the
stable-boy had to skip down quick and hold her head.
'How much didst say this traction-engine had cost thee?' Dan
asked, while Harold was pouring the indispensable fluid into the
tank.
'Not far off twelve hundred,' answered Harold lightly. 'Keep that
cigar away from here.'
'Fifteen pun' ud buy this mare,' Dan announced to the road.
'Now, all aboard!' Harold commanded at length. 'How much shall I
give to the boy for the horse and trap, uncle?'
'Nothing,' said Dan. 'I havena' finished wi' that mare yet. Didst
think I was going to trust mysen i' that thing o' yours again?
I'll meet thee at Bleakridge, lad.'
'And I think I'll go with uncle too, Harold,' said Maud.
Whereupon they both got into the trap.
Harold stared at them, astounded.
'But I say--' he protested, beginning to be angry.
Uncle Dan drove away like the wind, and the stable-boy had all he
could do to clamber up behind.
II
Now, at dinner-time that night, in the dining-room of the
commodious and well-appointed mansion of the youngest and richest
of the Etches, Uncle Dan stood waiting and waiting for his host
and hostess to appear. He was wearing a Turkish tasselled smoking-
cap to cover his baldness, and he had taken off his jacket and put
on his light, loose overcoat instead of it, since that was a
comfortable habit of his.
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