He turned the starting-handle, mounted into the car, depressed the clutch-pedal, and having advanced the speed-lever a little, ran up the path, out at the front gate, and disappeared.
Maurice flung his cigarette away, looking a trifle disconcerted. He went to his room opening on to the road, and remained at the window until he heard the hum of the car returning. Then he slipped into the garden, and was sauntering up and down, when George ran the machine down the path to its garage.
“I’ve had a jolly spin,” said George. “Nearly ran into a foreign fellow in the village: there appears to be a little colony of foreigners there: come to try boating, I suppose.”
He sprang out of the car, causing it to set up a slight rocking motion, and went into his workshop. Maurice stood at a distance of a few yards, contemplating what was to him an embodied mystery.
The machine was several feet longer than an ordinary motor-car, but about half as wide, and shaped like a boat. Indeed, its general appearance was that of a motor-cycle which had broken through the bottom of a rowing boat. Abaft amidships there was a seat for two persons, arranged pannier fashion, and sunk somewhat below the top of the framework on which it rested. A little to the rear of the seat was a glass chamber, in which were two top-like things, connected by a bar. It was, apparently, from these that the humming proceeded, but they were not visibly rotating, though they swayed slightly. In front was the casing, presumably covering the motor; behind was a similar object, but smaller.
George came out of the workshop.
“Hallo!” he said, as if recognising his brother for the first time. “Taking a squint?”
“What are those things?” asked Maurice, nodding towards the glass case.
“Those? Oh, they’re the gyroscopes.”
He got into the car, and let down, one on each side, two supports, each with a small wheel at the end. Then he moved a lever to stop the spinning of the gyroscopes, got out again, lifted the cover of the motor, and proceeded to oil the engine. For some time not a word was spoken. Then Maurice broke the silence.