"No, kid!" persisted Carmyle. "I undertake to get a new inner tube put into this tyre without laying a finger on it. Is it a bet?"
"Is Connie going to do it?" asked Dicky incredulously.
"She is and she is n't. She won't lay a finger on the tyre either, though. Will you stake your half-crown like a man?"
"I suppose there is a catch about it somewhere," said The Freak resignedly. "Still, I fancy we must humour the young people, Tilly. All right, my lad."
Mr. Carmyle turned to his wife.
"Show them, Connie," he said.
His dutiful helpmeet selected a large tyre-lever, and sitting down in the midst of the King's highway upon the tool-box, in a position which combined the maximum of discomfort with the minimum of leverage, began to pick helplessly at the rim of the wheel. Occasionally she looked up and smiled pathetically.
"Will that do, Bill dear?" she enquired.
"Yes; but try and look a bit more of an idiot."
Mrs. Carmyle complied.