“Shameful, sir! Something shameful!” he stormed, snatching out a notebook, and propping his machine against Larry’s new paint. “Dog was hanging head downwards out of the car—a sight I’d never thought to see in a civilised land—on my word, sir, never! Valuable dog, too, I should say, knowing a bit about dogs and given that way myself, and likely to suffer for it all its days if not put out of its misery at once and shot!”
Larrupper signalled wildly for help, and Deb came up running, weak with hysterical laughter, to be fallen upon rapturously by the quite unharmed devil in the machine.
“Tell the man it’s Christian’s——” Larry began desperately, horribly alarmed by the party in uniform, but the last unfortunate word merely drove the enemy into further frenzied scrapings of paint.
“Christian is just what it ain’t, sir—anything but!—More like them there savage caballyairos, over in Spain! Oh, the dog’s the lady’s, you say, sir, is it? Makes it all the worse then, being two of you. Your name and address as well, miss, if you please!”
It took some time to convince him of the purity of their intentions, and when he finally let them go, it was only on conditions.
“You’ll kindly take the dog along yourself, miss,” he announced firmly, still eyeing Larrupper with distinct distrust. “Oh, I’ve no doubt the gentleman meant well and all that kind of thing, but to go ’anging an ’armless dog out by the ’eels isn’t exactly nice behaviour to my way of thinking. So you go along with him, miss, and then I’ll be satisfied.”
“But I can’t—shan’t—won’t—don’t——!” Deb protested weakly, but he waved her objections to the winds.
“Don’t let us have any more arguments, miss,” he entreated plaintively. “’Tisn’t a very pleasant subject, now is it, when all’s said and done? Not one as you might dwell on. You get in, and I’ll hand you the dog.”
They drove away thoroughly chastened, even the puppy having been quiescent in the inspector’s grasp, and poor Larry slammed on top speed, seething with exasperation.
“I might have known any sort of a dog-thing would bring me bad luck!” he groaned dismally. “This’ll be fine hearin’ for old Dock, won’t it? It’s sure to be rampin’ all over the village before we’re well up at the kennels. Why on earth couldn’t you come at the beginnin’, Debbie dear, an’ save us makin’ a cinematograph of ourselves?”