Clive's eye kindled, while his cheeks reddened. He could afford to pity a chap who showed such tremendous ignorance; only, coming as it did at a moment when he himself was distinctly distressed, the idiotic suggestions of this ignoramus made him angry.
"Hang it!" he growled. "Don't talk such rot! Cooling indeed! Why, even—even Rawlings could tell you that the engine's air-cooled. There's the fan, stupid! staring you right in the face. The thing that's worrying me is the lever for chucking the concern out of gear."
Hugh gripped the side of the chassis as the secret was mentioned. It made him shiver to think that just as every difficulty that could be foreseen had been surmounted another had cropped up.
"And it's a beast," he groaned.
"A teaser," admitted Clive desperately.
"What's a gear lever?" asked Bert, with aggravating coolness and flippancy.
"What's a gear lever!" growled Clive, regarding him with an eye that positively glared.
"What's a mug?" shouted Hugh, ready almost to strike him.
"Someone who forgets that there is such a thing as a gear lever, and then can't or won't explain," came the irritating, maddening answer.
"Look here," began Clive, flushing hotly, and stepping nearer to Bert, "I've troubles enough already. I'll trouble you to——"