"You'll have his measure taken," said the Irishman, smiling again. "And if it's a five-pound note——"
"Don't mention it," said Templeton. "Tom, just lock up, will you? while I get ready."
He hastened across the yard, opened the bonnet of the car, and spent a few minutes with the inner mysteries. By the time he had satisfied himself that the engine was in working order the other two had joined him.
"I've only a quart of petrol," he said. "Wilkins has taken the rest, and our monthly allowance isn't due till to-morrow. The camp's about eleven miles, and we've nearly half an hour; but there's a stiff hill that will use most of the petrol; it's an old Ford and can barely do fifteen miles to the gallon."
"I'll run up the hill on my two feet to lighten the car," said the stranger, eagerly; "and sure I'd have run the whole way from the station if I were twenty years younger."
"You must have been a stayer in your time, sir," said Eves.
"Maybe I was that, the time I did a Marathon, and was not the last either. Only for being five and forty I wouldn't be troubling you, for a matter of eleven miles. But it's a sail I see you have. There's a nice breeze from the west, surely, and if the car doesn't upset on us I'm thinking we'd do without petrol only for the hill."
"Faith removes mountains," said Eves. "You've a pretty good share of it."
"Faith, and I have then. And if so be the car upsets on us, sure we'll have a bit of fun, and maybe that'll make up for the disappointment."
Eves chatted with the genial Irishman during the few minutes in which Templeton was making his final preparations. These completed, Templeton ran the machine out into the roadway. It was a strange-looking object. The body was little more than a skeleton framework, affording seating accommodation for three, and the necessary protection for the working parts. The drive was on the front wheels; the steering gear connected with the back wheels. A strong single mast was stayed just behind the driver's seat. A bowsprit projected some five feet beyond the radiator. There were two sails, mainsail and jib. As Templeton unfurled these, Eves noticed that the former had been recently patched.