ailable two
hundred and twenty-five pounds that was making him restive under the
yoke of regular employment. For a row of pins, that morning, he would
have given Jim Horrocleave a week's notice, or even the amount of a
week's wages in lieu of notice! Rachel sighed, but within herself.

In another minute he was elegantly flying down Bycars Lane, guiding
his own bicycle with his right hand and the crock with his left
hand. The feat appeared miraculous to Rachel, who watched from the
bow-window of the parlour. Beyond question he made a fine figure. And
it was for her that he was flying to Hanbridge! She turned away to her
domesticity.

II

It seemed to her that he had scarcely been gone ten minutes when one
of the glorious taxicabs which had recently usurped the stand of the
historic fly under the Town Hall porch drew up at the front door, and
Louis got out of it. The sound of his voice was the first intimation
to Rachel that it was Louis who was arriving. He shouted at the
cabman as he paid the fare. The window of the parlour was open and the
curtains pinned up. She ran to the window, and immediately saw that
Louis' head was bandaged. Then she ran to the door. He was climbing
rather stiffly up the steps.

"All right! All right!" he shouted at her. "A spill. Nothing of the
least importance. But both the jiggers are pretty well converted into
old iron. I tell you it's all _right_! Shut the door."

He bumped down on the oak chest, and took a long breath.

"But you are frightfully hurt!" she exclaimed. She could not properly
see his face for the bandages.

Mrs. Tams appeared. Rachel murmured to her in a flash--

"Go out the back way and fetch Dr. Yardley at once."

She felt herself absolutely calm. What puzzled her was Louis'
shouting. Then she understood he was shouting from mere excitement and
did not realize that he shouted.

"No need for any doctor! Quite simple!" he called out.

But Rachel gave a word confirming the original order to Mrs. Tams, who
disappeared.

"First thing I knew I was the centre of an admiring audience, and fat
Mrs. Heath, in her white apron and the steel hanging by her side, was
washing my face with a sponge and a basin of water, and Heath stood by
with brandy. It was nearly opposite their shop. People in the tram had
a rare view of me."

"But was it the tram-car you ran into?" Rachel asked eagerly.

He replied with momentary annoyance--

"Tram-car! Of course it wasn't the tra