e it wasn't an Army Form. Was I not, he ventured to ask, the
proprietor of a small car?

"What was once a small car before it met what was once a large telegraph
pole," I said thoughtlessly.

He was glad to hear this, as he too was the owner of a small car. We
shook hands on that, though we knew all the time that H.M. Government
was the owner of both. H.M. Government not being present, however, to
insist on its rights, we were able to do a quiet swank. In the course of
it he mentioned, quite by the way, the matter of shock-absorbers. He had
reason to believe that my car could spare his car a couple of these.

I saw the need for hedging. "That telegraph pole I mentioned just now
wasn't really very large," I explained, "and it came away quietly,
offering no resistance."

He smiled knowingly at that.

"Were _you_," I continued, fixing a cold and relentless eye upon
him--"were you equally lucky with your--your--?"

"Small lorry," he said, with a faint blush. "A tiny lorry, in fact."

"Not more than a dozen tons or so?" I suggested. "No doubt it passed
quite gradually over you, frightening more than hurting you, and you
were able to walk home with remainder of small motor in pocket of
greatcoat?"

He didn't go into that subject. "By the way," he said, "I happened to be
round at the workshops just now----"

"Did you, indeed?" I took him up. "Then let me tell you at once that the
wreckage in the workshop's yard was not my small car, so you may abandon
any hopes you had built upon that."

He appeared to be surprised at the attitude I adopted.

"No," he said slowly--"no, I knew that wasn't _your_ car."

I thought rapidly. "It was _yours_," I hazarded, "and your idea was to
re-equip that battered wreck at the expense of my very slightly injured
property?"

He smiled shamelessly.

"You are a most unscrupulous officer," I said, "and I'm beginning to
think you _are_ the voice which gets me out of bed--I mean, interrupts
my work--every morning at dawn."

"No, really," he replied, glad to have something to be honest about. "At
that hour I am always in--at work myself."

We shook hands again on that and I offered him a cigarette.

"Have one of mine," said he.

"No, no," I pressed; "you have one of mine."

Again, if the truth had been admitted, H.M. Government was the rightful
owner of both.

"Of course," he explained, "you saw my little 'bus from quite its worst
aspect in that yard."

I was for getting to bu