that they only had
six Clinos for the Brigade, but the major remarked dryly, "And after
Canon Scott has got his we shall only have five." Surely once again
the Lord had provided for me. I was driven back to the Chateau in the
new machine, but then had to find a driver. One was provided by the
signallers. He was a graduate in science of McGill, so I used to lay
stress upon my personal greatness from the fact that I had a university
graduate for my chauffeur. Many and varied were the drives which Lyons
and I had together, and many and varied were our adventures. Had the
Clino not been both exceedingly strong and very new it would have come
to grief long before it did. To go rattling down the St. Pol road at
forty-five kilometres an hour was a frequent occurrence. All I had to
sit upon was a seat without arms, while my foot rested on a bar in (p. 260)
front. People asked me how it was I did not tumble off. I told them
that I tied myself to the back of the seat with my spinal cord. I got
the sappers to make me a large box which fitted on the back of the
vehicle and had a padlock. In it I used to carry my bag of a thousand
hymn books and other necessaries for church parades, and on the top of
the box, as a protection to my car, I had the words "Canon Scott"
painted in large white letters. The dust as we threaded our way
through the streams of lorries almost choked us, but we could cover
the ground in a short space of time which was a great thing. Lyons
never managed the lights very successfully, and one rainy night after
midnight, when I was returning from saying good-bye to the artillery
who were moving South, in a lonely part of the road he ran the machine
into some bushes on a bank by the wayside, and we found ourselves
sitting in the mud without our hats. We did not know where we were and
the rain was heavy, but we managed to disentangle the car and finally
got home, resolving that further night excursions were out of the
question. About a fortnight afterwards I received an order to return
the Clino, but before I did so I journeyed to Corps Headquarters and
made a passionate appeal to General Currie for its retention. As a
result I received a private intimation to keep the car and say nothing
about it. Of course I was the envy of everyone, and when they asked me
how I got the Clino I said I did not exactly know. Whether it was sent
to me from heaven with the assistance of General Currie, or whether it
was sent to me from