Again the Colonel and the Doctor laughed.
“So you thought her language queer, did you?” exclaimed the Colonel. “Fourteen and fifteen o’clock sound strangely to your ears? Well; since your day we have changed the nomenclature of time somewhat and I think I may say without vanity we have improved upon your methods. Instead of your A. M. and P. M., which we moderns find awkward and cumbersome and likely to lead to confusion in certain instances, we divide the day and night into a straight twenty-four hours. Thus we count from midnight to midnight. One hour after noon is with us thirteen o’clock and the day closes at the last stroke of midnight, which we name twenty-four o’clock. Thus it would appear that old Mrs. Merriweather was not so much out of the way, after all.”
“Oh, I see,” replied the Professor, “but may I inquire how it was that she had never heard of the village of Averill and why so much anger on her part, and merriment on yours, over our very innocent inquiry for a conveyance?”
“What kind of a conveyance was it you asked for?” inquired the Colonel, with a merry twinkle in his eyes.
“A horse and carriage, sir,” answered the Professor with dignity.
The Doctor coughed a discreet professional cough and pressed his handkerchief to his lips in an all too evident attempt to conceal his merriment. The Colonel laughed outright.
“Averill,” said he, “as I happen to know from certain old documents I have had occasion to examine, was an old-time village long ago absorbed by the town of Pemberton. Its very name has disappeared from local memory. I am not astonished that Mrs. Merriweather could not recall it. As for your demand for a horse and carriage—why, my dear sir, it is many, many years since horses were used. With charging stations in every direction and our systems of drawing electricity from the clouds, no man could afford to deal with so slow, expensive and antiquated an object as a horse. They are still used for the purposes of racing and His Majesty, the King, on certain state occasions sits in the royal chariot drawn by four horses, but for all ordinary uses the horse has entirely disappeared. You might as well have called for a sedan chair.”
“Oh!” said the Professor blankly. “I suppose I should have asked for a voiter. What, by the way, is a voiter?”
“Simply a modernized name for vehicle,” replied the Colonel.
“Do you happen to have a public official named Waring?” asked Kearns.