aid the girl. "Anyone might sprain a wrist.
There's no disgrace about that. The real trouble is that the poor old
dear put some stuff on his wrist, to cure it, you know. It must have
been the wrong stuff, for it brought on erysipelas."

"I thought you said he was a doctor."

"That's just it. He thinks that no one will believe in him any more
now that he's doctored his own wrist all wrong. That's what makes him
depressed. I told him not to mind; but he does."

"The best doctors make mistakes sometimes," said Geoffrey.

"Everybody does," said the girl. "Even competent mechanics aren't always
quite sure about things, are they? Now you see why I don't want to send
out Jones if I can possibly help it."

"But you can't possibly help it," said Geoffrey.

He wondered whether he could offer to pay Jones' bill himself. It would
not, he supposed, be very large, and he would have been glad to pay it
to save the girl from trouble. But he did not like to make the offer.

"We might," he said, "persuade Jones not; to send in his bill till your
father's wrist is better. Anyhow, there's nothing for it but to get him.
We'll just push your car to the side of the road out of the way and then
I'll run you into Hamley."

The car was pushed well over to the side of the road, and left on a
patch of grass. Geoffrey shoved hard at the spokes of one of the back
wheels. The girl pushed, with one hand on a lamp bracket. She steered
with the other, and added a good deal to Geoffrey's labour by turning
the wheel the wrong way occasionally.

The drive to Hamley did not take long; but it was nearly half-past six
before they reached the village street. Jones's shop and motor garage
were shut up for the night; but a kindly bystander told Geoffrey where
the man lived. Unfortunately, the man was not at home. His wife, who
seemed somewhat aggrieved at his absence, gave it as her opinion that he
was likely to be found in the George Inn.

"But it isn't no use your going there for him," she said. "There's a
Freemason's dinner tonight, and Jones wouldn't leave that, not if you
offered him a ten-pound note."

Geoffrey turned to the girl.

"Shall we try?" he asked. "Is it worth while going after him?"

"I can't leave the car on the side of the road all night," she said. "If
we can't get Jones, I must walk back and try again."

Geoffrey made a heroic resolve.

"I'll leave you at home first," he said, "and then I'll go and drag
Jones out of that di