elves off their bicycles; and
Erebus cried: "Wiggins hasn't been poaching at all! It was the Terror!"

"Was it, indeed?" said Mr. Carrington calmly.

On his words the car was on them; and as it came to a dead stop Mr.
D'Arcy Rosenheimer tumbled clumsily out of it.

"I've got you, you liddle devil!" he bellowed triumphantly, but quite
incorrectly; and he rushed at Wiggins who stepped discreetly behind his
father.

"What's the matter?" said Mr. Carrington.

The excited young Pomeranian Briton, taking in his age and size at a
single glance, shoved him aside with splendid violence. Mr. Carrington
seemed to step lightly backward and forward in one movement; his left
arm shot out; and there befell Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer what, in the
technical terms affected by the fancy, is described as "an uppercut on
the point which put him to sleep." He fell as falls a sack of
potatoes, and lay like a log.

The keeper had just disengaged himself from the car and hurried forward.

"Do you want some too, my good man?" said Mr. Carrington in his most
agreeable tone, keeping his guard rather low.

The keeper stopped short and looked down, with a satisfaction he made
no effort to hide, at the body of his stricken employer which lay
between them.

"I can't say as I do, sir," he said civilly; and he backed away.

"Then perhaps you'll be good enough to tell me the name of this hulking
young blackguard who assaults quiet elderly gentlemen, taking
constitutionals, in this most unprovoked and wanton fashion," said the
higher mathematician in the same agreeable tone.

"Assaults?--'Im assault?--Yes, sir; it's Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, of
Great Deeping Court, sir," said the keeper respectfully.

"Then tell Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, when he recovers the few wits he
looks to have, with my compliments, that he will some time this evening
be summoned for assault. Good afternoon," said Mr. Carrington, and he
turned on his heel.

The keeper and the chauffeur stooped over the body of their young
employer. Mr. Carrington did not so much as turn his head. He put his
walking-stick under his arm, and rubbed the knuckles of his left hand
with rueful tenderness. None the less he looked pleased; it was
gratifying to a slight man of his sedentary habit to have knocked down
such a large, round Pomeranian Briton with such exquisite neatness.
Wheeling their bicycles, Erebus and Wiggins walked beside him with a
proud air. They felt that they shone with