"I am going to sit in front," said Dicky, "in case Connie does anything specially crack-brained with the car. Crick, old friend, just separate these two fair ladies, will you?"
Mr. Crick obeyed with alacrity. The Freak, heedless of a tiny cloud upon Miss Beverley's usually serene brow, stepped up beside Miss Damer. That lady released her clutch-pedal, and the car, spurting up gravel with its back wheels, shot convulsively forward and then began to crawl heavily on its way.
"We'll put something on for you if you aren't in time for the first race, Bill," called The Freak to me. "What do you want to back?"
I inflated my lungs, and replied fortissimo:--
"Plumstone!"
Miss Damer's small foot came heavily down upon the accelerator, and the car whizzed down the drive.
CHAPTER VII
UNEARNED INCREMENT
Lady Adela and I studiously avoided all reference to gardening or diet upon our six-mile drive to Laxley, and reached the course in a condition of comparative amicability.
We arrived just in time to hear the roar that greeted the result of the first race.