e inspector asked a few questions, and gleaned sufficient information
to convince him that this was a huge practical joke, and that prompt
action was imperative. He telephoned for more men and set to work in
an endeavour to organise the traffic and reduce it to manageable
proportions.

Constables were placed at different points along the main thoroughfare
leading to Fulham High Street, asking all drivers and chauffeurs if
they were bound for Mr. Alfred Hearty's shop in Fulham High Street, and
if so sending them back. Men were stationed at Hammersmith and Putney
High Street to divert the streams of traffic that still poured towards
Fulham.

Putney and Fulham had never seen anything like it. Families went
dinnerless because housewives either could not get to the shops, or
could not get away from them again. Telephones rang, and irate
housekeepers enquired when the materials for lunch were coming.
Taxicab drivers with fares sat stolidly at the wheel, conscious that
their income was increasing automatically, whilst the fares themselves
fumed and fussed as they saw their twopences vanish.

It was not until past one o'clock that the trams restarted, and it was
2.30 before Bindle got back to the yard with his three pantechnicons.

"Poor ole 'Earty's got it in the neck this time," he muttered as he
turned back towards Fulham High Street to lend a hand in putting things
straight. Mr. Hearty was distracted at the thought that none of his
customers had received their fruit and vegetables, and Bindle was
genuinely sorry for him. All that afternoon and late into the night he
worked, helping to weigh up and deliver orders; and when he eventually
left the shop at a few minutes before midnight, he was "as tired as a
performin' flea."

"I like 'Earty when 'e goes mad," he muttered to himself as he left the
shop. "It sort o' wakes up sleepy old Fulham. I wonder 'oo it was.
Shouldn't be surprised if I could spot 'im. If it ain't Mr. Dick
Little call me Jack Johnson. I wish 'e 'adn't done it, though."

Bindle was thinking of the pathetic figure Mr. Hearty had cut, and of
the feverish manner in which he had worked to make up for the lost
hours, Bindle had been genuinely touched when, as he was about to leave
the shop, his brother-in-law had shaken him warmly by the hand and, in
an unsteady voice, thanked him for his help. Then looking round as if
searching for something, he had suddenly seized the largest pineapple
from th