Her thoughts were interrupted by the arrival at the door of Mr Polopetsi. He had been working at the garage for several days now and had made a very good impression on all of them. Mr J.L.B. Matekoni had been particularly pleased with the way in which he had tidied the store cupboards. Cans of oil had been placed on shelves according to size, and parts had been organised according to make.

“You need a system,” Mr Polopetsi had announced. “Then you will know when it is time to order more spark plugs and the like. This is called stock control.”

He had also scrubbed the garage floor, removing several large patches of oil which the apprentices had never bothered to do anything about.

“Somebody might slip,” said Mr Polopetsi. “You have to be very careful.”

Mr J.L.B. Matekoni was delighted with this pronouncement, and drew it to the attention of the remaining apprentice.

“Did you hear that, young man?” he said. “Did you hear what Polopetsi said? Carefulness. Have you heard that word before? Do you know what it means?”

The younger apprentice said nothing, but stared at Mr Polopetsi in a surly way. He had been suspicious of this new employee ever since he had arrived, although Mr Polopetsi had been polite to him and had made every effort to win him over. Observing this, it had been clear to Mr J.L.B. Matekoni that their assumption that Charlie would soon hear that his place had been usurped was perfectly correct. But he was not sure that Charlie would respond in quite the way Mma Ramotswe had anticipated. However, they would see in due course, and for the time being the important thing was that the work in the garage was getting done.

Mr Polopetsi, in fact, had shown considerable talent for the simpler mechanical tasks which Mr J.L.B. Matekoni had given him. Watching the way he changed an air filter, or examined the oil on an engine’s dip stick, made Mr J.L.B. Matekoni realise that this man had a feeling for cars, something which some mechanics never developed but which was a necessity if one was to become really good at the job.

“You like engines, don’t you?” he said to Mr Polopetsi at the end of his first day. “I can tell that you understand them. Have you worked with them before?”

“Never,” admitted Mr Polopetsi. “I do not know the names of all the parts or what they do. This bit here, for example, what does it do?”

Mr J.L.B. Matekoni peered at the engine. “That,” he said, “is a very interesting bit. That is the distributor. It is the bit which sends the electric current in the right direction.”

“So you would not want any dirt or water to get in there,” said Mr Polopetsi.