I obeyed, in spite of my leg, and dropped gasping into the seat beside her. And then her companion, damn his eyes, was saying:

“Here is your man, constable. Arrest him, if you please.”

A police sergeant poked his head in at the door, surveyed us, and said to the fair man, doubtfully:

“This gentleman, sir?”

“Of course. Who else?”

“Well….” The bobby was puzzled, seeing me sitting there large as life. “Are you sure, sir?”

The fair man rapped out another foreign oath, and said of course he was sure. He called the sergeant a fool.

“Oh, stop it, Otto,” says the lady suddenly. “Really, sergeant, it’s too bad of him; he’s making game of you. This gentleman is with us.”

“Rosanna!” The fair man looked outraged. “What are you thinking of? Sergeant, I—”

“Don’t play the fool, Otto,” says I, taking my cue, and delighted to have my hand squeezed by the lady. “Come on, man, get in and let’s be off home. I’m tired.”

He gave me a look of utter fury, and then a fine altercation broke out between him and the sergeant, which the lady Rosanna seemed to find vastly amusing. The coachee and another constable joined in, and then suddenly the sergeant, who had been frowning oddly in my direction while the sergeant raged, stuck his head into the coach again, and says:

“Wait a minnit. I know you, don’t I? You’re Cap’n Flashman, bigod!”

I admitted it, and he swore and slapped his fist.

“The ’ero of Julloolabad!” cries he.

I smiled modestly at Miss Rosanna, who was looking at me wide-eyed.

“The defender of Piper’s Fort!” cries the sergeant.

“Well, well,” says I, “it’s all right, sergeant.”

“The ’Ector of Afghanistan!” cries the sergeant, who evidently studied the press. “Damme! Well, ‘ere’s a go!”

He was beaming all over his face, which didn’t suit my denouncer at all. Angrily he demanded that I be arrested.

“He is a fugitive,” he declared. “He invaded our coach without permission.”

“I don’t give a dam’ if ’e invaded Buckin’am Palace without permission,” says the sergeant, turning back to me. “Corporal Webster, sir, Third Guards, under Major Macdonald at ’Ougoumont, sir.”

“Honoured to know you, sergeant,” says I, shaking his hand.

“Honour’s mine, sir, ’deed it is. Now then, you, sir, let’s ’ave no more of this. You’re not English, are you?”

“I am a Prussian officer,” says the man called Otto, “and I demand—”

“Cap’n Flashman is a British officer, so you don’t demand nothink,” says the sergeant. “Now, then! Let’s ’ave no trouble.” He touched his hat to us and gave me a broad wink. “Wish you good-night, sir, an’ you, ma’am.”