‘Just give me a shove for a few yards,’ Walter said. ‘We’ll get her firing.’

‘Once and for all,’ Charles protested, ‘leave me out of this. You seem to assume that I’m going to aid and abet you in fooling about with this contraption and going against your father’s wishes. Well, I’m not losing my job for you or anyone else.’

‘Look, you’ve got it all wrong,’ said Walter in a wheedling tone. ‘You seem to think you’ve got to come down definitely on one side or the other. The Pater’s or mine. Well, you needn’t; you can be neutral. When he’s here, you play his game. When he’s away, you play mine.’

‘What about my own game? When do I play that?’

‘Be a pal. Come on, now, don’t leave me in the lurch. All I want is a little help now and again. Life’s difficult enough as it is.’

‘All right, all right. Get behind the wheel and I’ll push. Anything for a quiet life.’

He pushed until the engine began to give off intermittent bangs and puffs of black smoke. Walter made one or two efforts to accelerate up to a smooth rate of firing, then silenced the machine and wheeled it moodily away to his workshop. Charles smoked a cigarette, relaxing in the still warmth of the afternoon, and then began to make up arrears of work. He was putting oil in the Daimler when Hutchins came out of the side door and walked across to him, flushing darkly with annoyance.

‘Have you been sending me a lot of damn fool telegrams signed Merde?’ he demanded.

Charles straightened up and looked at him in stupefaction.

‘Have I been doing what?’

‘You heard. Some damned swine has been sending me tele­grams, with idiotic messages, calling themselves Merde.’

‘Can I help it if you’ve got friends with peculiar names?’

Hutchins had his fists clenched and thrust inside his hip pockets. He was really angry.

‘Look here, Lumley, blast you, come clean. I don’t know any­one else who would send telegrams from this area, all from different places. And if it comes to that, I don’t know anyone else who would want to annoy and embarrass me.’

‘You must be lucky,’ said Charles in a tone that implied that Hutchins was also lucky to have his own front teeth.

‘I’ll get you sacked, you blasted well see if I don’t.’

‘You want to think carefully, George. You may be making a terrible mistake. Perhaps you really have a friend called Merde and it’s slipped your mind. People can’t help their names.’

At that moment the housekeeper came out and handed Hutchins a telegram. He turned white and stood holding it, looking straight in front of him.

‘The boy wants to know if there’s any answer, sir,’ said the housekeeper.

‘Tell him there isn’t,’ Hutchins grated.