"Oh, all right. You're a tyrant, Andrew, but you mean well."
When Whitney went for the spanner Dick knelt down in the road to inspect the machine.
"Lend me your knife," he requested. "It will be all right if I put something in the jaws."
"I'm inclined to think you'd better leave it alone," Andrew replied meaningly.
Dick laughed.
"You're a suspicious beggar. I wasn't away five minutes. Anyhow, there's a fascination in tampering with other people's machines. Where's the knife?"
Andrew let him have it, and soon afterward Dick uttered an expletive as he tore the skin from one of his knuckles.
"The beastly thing will slip; but I'm not going to be beaten by a common American nut," he declared. "If I can't screw it up, I'll twist the bolt-head off."
"Leave it alone!" said Andrew.
"It's going!" Dick panted, and threw the spanner down. "Another knuckle skinned," he added grimly.