"Risk it," suggested Wakefield. "We're only two miles from Shaftesbury. You can get another tube there. This one looks as if it were on its last legs."
"That's the game," agreed Pyecroft. "Let's push on. We're expecting letters at the Post Office, and they'll be closed before we get there if we don't get a move on."
Without further delays the four climbed the long ascent out of Semley and dismounted at the old-world town of Shaftesbury, that has the reputation of being one of the loftiest boroughs in England, being nearly 800 feet above the sea.
"I'll call at the Post Office," suggested Cumberleigh, when the party had secured rooms at the hotel. "Don't worry about that tyre to-night, Meredith. I'll be back in half a tick."
"Tea won't be ready for half an hour," announced Wakefield, after the two had shed their overalls and had removed the dust of the road from their hands and faces. "Let's go for a stroll. I'll leave word with the boots for Cumberleigh to pick us up. By Jove! I feel like a fish out of water."
"So did I," admitted Pyecroft. "Missed my batman as much as anything, dear old soul!"
"I bought some tobacco this morning," said Meredith. "First lot other than Navy I've bought for months. And a shilling an ounce, too!"
"I begin to wonder whether we have won the War," declared Wakefield. "While we've been fighting the Huns the people who stayed at home have become top-dog. They seem to have plenty of money to chuck about, and don't seem to mind if a Bradbury is worth only nine shillings. Because we licked Fritz is no reason why the price of everything should go up after the War. Mind you, I'm not complaining of the prices of things during the War. We had to grin and bear it. But now, why?"
"Reaction, I suppose," suggested Meredith. "Same's us, only certain sections of the community go about it a different way—strike, and all that sort of thing."
"And meanwhile our sea-borne trade is being collared by the Yanks and Japs," remarked Wakefield. "It's all very fine talking about the superiority of British manufactured articles, but when, owing to labour troubles, they can't be got, or, if they can, they are prohibitive in price, where are you? Germany, our former serious rival, is down and out, and instead of bucking to and capturing their markets we play the fool and pay out unemployment doles. Hello'! here's Cumberleigh."