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The Wheels of Chance Chapters 32 · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section twelve of the Wheels of Chance. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot
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  Speaker 1: r G recording by Valley. The Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty two. Mister Hoopdriver knight Errant, as mister Dangle
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  Speaker 1: had witnessed. The fugitives, had been left by him by
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  Speaker 1: the side of the road about two miles from Botley.
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  Speaker 1: Before mister Dangle's appearance, mister Hoopdriver had been learning with
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  Speaker 1: great interest that mere roadside flowers had names, staff flowers,
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  Speaker 1: wind stars, Saint John's wort, willowherb, lords and ladies, bachelor's buttons.
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  Speaker 1: Most curious named some of them. The flowers are all
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  Speaker 1: different in South Africa, I know, he was explaining, with
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  Speaker 1: the happy fluke of his imagination to account for his ignorance. Then,
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  Speaker 1: suddenly heralded by clattering sounds and a grid of wheels,
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  Speaker 1: Dangle had flared and thundered across the tranquility of the
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  Speaker 1: summer evening. Dangle, swaying and gesticulating behind a corybantic black horse,
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  Speaker 1: had hailed Jessie by her name, had backed towards the
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  Speaker 1: hedge for no ostensible reason and vanished to the accomplishment
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  Speaker 1: of the fate that had been written down for him
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  Speaker 1: from the very beginning of things. Jessee and Hoopdriver had
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  Speaker 1: scarcely time to stand up and seize their machines before
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  Speaker 1: this tumultuous, this swim and wonderful passing of Dangle was achieved.
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  Speaker 1: He went from side to side of the road, worse
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  Speaker 1: even than the riding forth of mister Hoopdriver, it was,
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  Speaker 1: and vanished round the corner. He knew my name, said Jesse. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: it was mister Dangle. That was our bicycles. Did that?
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  Speaker 1: Said mister Hoopdriver, simultaneously, and speaking with a certain complacent concern.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you won't get hurt. That was mister Dangle,
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  Speaker 1: repeated Jessee, and mister Hoopdriver heard, this time with a
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  Speaker 1: violent start. His eyebrows went up spasmodically. What some one
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  Speaker 1: you know? Yes, Lord, he was looking for me, said Jessee.
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  Speaker 1: I could see he began to call to me before
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  Speaker 1: the horse shied, mister mother has sent him. Mister Hoopdriver
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  Speaker 1: wished he had returned the bicycle after all, for his
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  Speaker 1: ideas were still a little hazy about Bechamel and missus Milton.
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  Speaker 1: Honesty is the best policy, often, he thought he turned
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  Speaker 1: his head this way, and that he became active after
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  Speaker 1: us eum. Then he'll come back. He's gone down that
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  Speaker 1: hill and he won't be able to pull up for
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  Speaker 1: a bit. I'm certain Jessee, he saw, had wheeled the
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  Speaker 1: machine into the road and was mounting, still staring at
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  Speaker 1: the corner that had swallowed up Dangle. Hoopdriver followed suit,
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  Speaker 1: and so just as the sun was setting, they began
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  Speaker 1: another flight together, riding now towards Bishop's Waltham, with mister
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  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver in the post of danger the rear ever and
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  Speaker 1: again looking over his shoulder and swerving dangerously. As he
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  Speaker 1: did so. Occasionally Jesse had to slacken her pace. He
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  Speaker 1: breathed heavily, and hated himself because his mouth fell open.
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  Speaker 1: After nearly an hour's hard riding, they found themselves uncaught
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  Speaker 1: at Winchester. Not a trace of Dangle nor any other
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  Speaker 1: danger was visible as the road into the dusky, yellow
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  Speaker 1: lit street, though the bats had been fluttering behind the
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  Speaker 1: hedges and the evening star was bright. While there was
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  Speaker 1: still two miles from Winchester. Mister Hoopdriver pointed out the
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  Speaker 1: dangers of stopping in such an obvious, abiding place, and
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  Speaker 1: gently but firmly insisted upon replenishing the lamps and riding
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  Speaker 1: on towards Salisbury. From Winchester, roads branched in every direction,
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  Speaker 1: and to turn abruptly westward was clearly the way to
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  Speaker 1: throw off the chase. As Hoopdrivers saw the moon rising
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  Speaker 1: broad and yellow through the twilight, he thought he should
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  Speaker 1: revive the effect of that right out of Bogner. But somehow,
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  Speaker 1: albeit the moon and all atmospheric effects were the same,
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  Speaker 1: the emotions were different. They rode in absolute silence and slowly.
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  Speaker 1: After they had cleared the outskirts of Winchester, both of
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  Speaker 1: them were now nearly tired out. The level was tedious,
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  Speaker 1: and even a little hill a burdened. And so it
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  Speaker 1: came about in the hamlet of Valenstock. They were beguiled
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  Speaker 1: to stop and ask for accommodation in an exceptionally prosperous
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  Speaker 1: looking village in a plausible Landlady rose to the now.
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  Speaker 1: As they passed into the room where their suppers were prepared,
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  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver caught a glimpse through a door ajar and
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  Speaker 1: floating in a reek of smoke of three and a
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  Speaker 1: half faces for the edge of the door cut one down,
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  Speaker 1: and an American cloth covered table with several glasses and
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  Speaker 1: a tankard. And he also heard a remark in a
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  Speaker 1: second before he heard that remark, mister hoopdriver had been
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  Speaker 1: a proud and happy man to verticularize a baronet's hair, incognitor,
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  Speaker 1: He had surrendered their bicycles to the odd man of
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  Speaker 1: the place with infinite easy dignity, and had bowingly opened
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  Speaker 1: the door for Jessie. Who's that? Then he imagined people saying,
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  Speaker 1: and then summon pretty well off judged by the bicycles.
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  Speaker 1: Then the imaginary spectators would fall a talking of the
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  Speaker 1: fashionableness of bicycling, how judges and stockbrokers and actresses, and
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  Speaker 1: in fact all the best people rode, and how that
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  Speaker 1: it was often the fancy of such great folk to
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  Speaker 1: shun the big hotels, the adulation of urban crowds, and
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  Speaker 1: seek incognito the cozy, quaintnessness of village life. Then maybe
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  Speaker 1: they would think of a certain nameless air of distinction
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  Speaker 1: about the lady who had stepped across the doorway, and
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  Speaker 1: about the handsome flaxen mustached, blue eyed cavalier who had
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  Speaker 1: followed her in, And they would look one to another.
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  Speaker 1: Tell you what it is, one of the village elders
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  Speaker 1: would say, just as they do, and are voicing the
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  Speaker 1: thought of all in a low, impressive tone. There's such
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  Speaker 1: a thing as entertaining. Baronet's unawares not to mention. No
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  Speaker 1: higher things such I say, had been the filmy, delightful
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  Speaker 1: stuff in mister Hoopdriver's head the moment before he heard
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  Speaker 1: that remark. But the remark toppled him headlong. What the
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  Speaker 1: precise remark was need not concern us. It was a
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  Speaker 1: casual piece of such satire as Strephon delights in. Should
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  Speaker 1: you be curious, dear lady, as to its nature, you
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  Speaker 1: have merely to dress yourself in a really modern cycling costume,
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  Speaker 1: get one of the feeblest looking of your mentor escort you,
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  Speaker 1: and ride out next Saturday evening to any public house
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  Speaker 1: where heldy homely people gathered to get Then you will
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  Speaker 1: hear quite a lot of the kind of thing mister
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  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver heard, more possibly than you will desire. The remark,
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  Speaker 1: I must add, implicated mister Hoopdriver, it indicated an entire
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  Speaker 1: disbelief in his social standing. At a blow, it shattered
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  Speaker 1: all the gorgeous, imaginative fabric his mind had been rejoicing in.
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  Speaker 1: All that foolish happiness vanished like a dream, And there
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  Speaker 1: was nothing to show for it, as there is nothing
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  Speaker 1: to show for any spiteful remark that has ever been made.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps the man who said the thing had a gleam
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  Speaker 1: of satisfaction at the idea of taking a complacent looking
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  Speaker 1: fool down a peg, But it is just as possible
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  Speaker 1: he did not know at that time that his stray
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  Speaker 1: shot had hit. He had thrown it as a boy
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  Speaker 1: throws a stone at a bird, and it not only
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  Speaker 1: demolished a foolish, happy concit but it wounded. It touched
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  Speaker 1: Jessie grossly. She did not hear it, he concluded from
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  Speaker 1: her subsequent bearing. But during the supper they had in
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  Speaker 1: the little private dining room, though she talked cheerfully, he
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  Speaker 1: was preoccupied. Whiffs of indistinct conversation, and now and then
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  Speaker 1: laughter came in from the inn parlor through the alargoniums
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  Speaker 1: in the open window. Hoopdriver felt it must all be
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  Speaker 1: in the same strain at her expense and his, He
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  Speaker 1: answered her abstractedly. She was tired, she said, and presently
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  Speaker 1: went to her room. Mister Hope, however, in his courtly way,
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  Speaker 1: opened the door for her and bowed her out. He stood,
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  Speaker 1: listening and fearing some new offense, as she went upstairs
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  Speaker 1: and around the bend where the barometer hung beneath the
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  Speaker 1: stuffed birds. Then he went back to the room and
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  Speaker 1: stood on the hearth rug before the paper fireplace ornament cats,
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  Speaker 1: he said, in a scanning undertone, as a fresh burst
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  Speaker 1: of laughter came floating in. All through supper he had
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  Speaker 1: been composing stinking ripatie, a blistering speech of denunciation, to
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  Speaker 1: be presently delivered. He would rate them as a nobleman
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  Speaker 1: should call themselves englishmen. Indeed, and insult a woman, he
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  Speaker 1: would say, take the names and addresses, perhaps, threatened to
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  Speaker 1: speak to the Lord of the manner, promised to let
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  Speaker 1: them hear from him again, and so out, with consternation
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  Speaker 1: in his wake. It really ought to be done. Teach
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  Speaker 1: them better, he said, fiercely, and tweaked his mustache painfully.
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  Speaker 1: What was it? He revived the objectionable remark for his
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  Speaker 1: own exasperation, and then went over the heads of his
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  Speaker 1: speech again. He coughed, made three steps towards the door,
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  Speaker 1: then stopped and went back to the hearth run. He wouldn't,
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  Speaker 1: after all, yet, was he not a knight errant? Should
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  Speaker 1: such men go unreproved, unchecked by wandering baronets incognito magnanimity?
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  Speaker 1: Look at it in that way, Charles beneath one's notice. No,
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  Speaker 1: merely a cowardly subtile verge he would, after all. Something
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  Speaker 1: within him protested that he was hot headed as even
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  Speaker 1: as he went towards the door again. But he only
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  Speaker 1: went on the more resolutely. He crossed the hall by
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  Speaker 1: the bar and entered the room from which the remark
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  Speaker 1: had proceeded. He opened the door abruptly and stood scowling
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  Speaker 1: on them in the doorway. He'll only make a mess
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  Speaker 1: of it, remarked the internal skeptic. There were five men
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  Speaker 1: in the room altogether, A fat person with a long
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  Speaker 1: pipe and a great number of chins in an armchair
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  Speaker 1: by the fireplace, who wished mister hoopdriver a good evening,
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  Speaker 1: very affably, a young fellow smoking a cuttee and displaying
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  Speaker 1: crossed legs with gaiters, a little bearded man with a
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  Speaker 1: toothless laugh, a middle aged, comfortable man with bright eyes
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  Speaker 1: who wore a velveteen jacket, and a fair young man,
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  Speaker 1: very genteel in a yellowish brown ready made suit and
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  Speaker 1: a white tie. Hm, said mister Hoopdriver, looking very stern
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  Speaker 1: and harsh, and then in a forbidding tone, as one
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  Speaker 1: who consented to no liberties. Good evening, Very pleasant day
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  Speaker 1: we have been having, said the fair young man with
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  Speaker 1: the white tie. Very, said mister Hoopdriver slowly, and taking
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  Speaker 1: a brown armchair, he planted it with great deliberation, where
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  Speaker 1: he faced the fireplace and sat down. Let's see, how
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  Speaker 1: did that speech begin? Very pleasant roads about here, up,
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  Speaker 1: said the fair young man with the white tie. Very,
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  Speaker 1: said mister Hoopdriver, eyeing him darkly. Have to begin somehow.
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  Speaker 1: The roads about here are all right, and the weather
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  Speaker 1: about here is all right. But what I have come
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  Speaker 1: in here to say is there's some damned unpleasant people.
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  Speaker 1: Damned unpleasant people, oh, said the young man with the gaiters,
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  Speaker 1: apparently making a mental inventory of his pearl buttons as
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  Speaker 1: he spoke. How's that, mister Hoopdriver put his hands on
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  Speaker 1: his knees and stuck out his elbows with extreme angularity.
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  Speaker 1: In his heart, he was raving at his idiotic folly
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  Speaker 1: at thus bearding these lions. Indisputably they were lions, but
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  Speaker 1: he had to go through with it. Now, heaven sends
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  Speaker 1: his breadth, which was already getting a truffled spasmodic, did
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  Speaker 1: not suddenly give out. He fixed his eye on the
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  Speaker 1: face of the fat man with the chins and spoke
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  Speaker 1: in a low, impressive voice. I came here, sir, said
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  Speaker 1: mister hoopdriver, and paused to inflate his cheeks with a lady.
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  Speaker 1: Very nice lady, said the man with the gaiters, putting
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  Speaker 1: his head on one side to admire a pearl button
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  Speaker 1: that had been hiding beneath the curvature of his calf.
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  Speaker 1: Very nice lady. Indeed, I came here, said mister hoopdriver,
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  Speaker 1: with a lady. We saw you did, bless you, said
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  Speaker 1: the fat man with the chins, in a curious, weazy voice.
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  Speaker 1: I don't see there is anything so very extraordinary in
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  Speaker 1: that one think we hadn't ice, mister hoopdriver coughed. I here, sir,
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  Speaker 1: we have heard that, said the little man with the beard,
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  Speaker 1: sharply and went off into an amiable chuckle. You know
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  Speaker 1: it by heart, said the little man, elaborating the point.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Hoopdriver temporarily lost his threat. He glared malignantly at
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  Speaker 1: the little man with the beard and tried to recover
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  Speaker 1: his discourse. A pause, you are saying, said the fair
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  Speaker 1: young man with the white eye, speaking very politely, that
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  Speaker 1: you came here with a lady. A lady, meditated the
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  Speaker 1: gaiter gazer. The man in velveteen, who was looking from
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  Speaker 1: one speaker to another with keen bright eyes, now laughed
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  Speaker 1: as though a point had been scored, and stimulated mister
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  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver to speak by fixing him with an expectant Some
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  Speaker 1: dirty cat, said mister Hoopdriver, proceeding with his discourse, and
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  Speaker 1: suddenly growing extremely fierce, made a remark as we went
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  Speaker 1: by this door. Steady on, said the old man with
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  Speaker 1: many chins. Steady on, don't you go a calling us names? Please?
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  Speaker 1: One minute, said mister hoopdriver. It wasn't I began calling names.
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  Speaker 1: Who did, said the man with the chintz. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: calling any of you dirty cats. Don't run away with
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  Speaker 1: that impression. Only some person in this room made a
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  Speaker 1: remark that showed he wasn't fit to wipe boots on
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  Speaker 1: and with all due reference to such gentlemen as our gentlemen,
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  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver looked around for moral support. I want to
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  Speaker 1: know which it was meaning, said the fair young man
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  Speaker 1: in the white eye. That I'm going to wipe my
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  Speaker 1: boots on him straight away, said mister Hoopdriver, reverting to anger,
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  Speaker 1: if with a slight catch in his throat than which
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: threat of personal violence. Nothing had been further from his
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  Speaker 1: thoughts on entering the room. He said this because he
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  Speaker 1: could think of nothing else to say, and stuck out
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  Speaker 1: his elbows truculently to hide the sinking of his heart.
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  Speaker 1: It's is curious how situations run away with us. Hullo, charlie,
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  Speaker 1: said the little man. And my eye, said the owner
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  Speaker 1: of the chintz. You are going to wipe your boots
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  Speaker 1: on him, said the fair young man, in a tone
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  Speaker 1: of mild surprise. I am, said mister Hoopdriver, with emphatic resolution,
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  Speaker 1: and glared in the young man's face. That's fair and reasonable,
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  Speaker 1: said the man in the velveteen jacket, If you can.
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  Speaker 1: The interest of the meeting seemed transferred to the young
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  Speaker 1: man in the white tie. Of course, if you can't
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  Speaker 1: find out which it is, I suppose you are prepared
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  Speaker 1: to wipe your boots in a liberal way on everybody
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  Speaker 1: in the room, said this young man, in the same
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  Speaker 1: tone of impersonal question. This gentleman, the champion, the lightweight,
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  Speaker 1: own up, Charlie, said the young man with the gaiters,
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  Speaker 1: looking up for a moment. Don't go on dragging in
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  Speaker 1: your betters. It's fair and square. You can't get out
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  Speaker 1: of it, was it, this jed began mister hoopdriver. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: said the young man in the white tie. When it
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  Speaker 1: comes to talking of wiping boots, I'm not talking. I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to do it, said mister hoopdriver. He looked round
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  Speaker 1: at the meeting. They were no longer antagonists, they were spectators.
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  Speaker 1: He would have to go through with it now. But
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: this tone of personal aggression on the maker of the
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: remark had somehow got rid of the oppressive feeling of
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: hoopdriver contramandum. Apparently he would have to fight some one.
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  Speaker 1: Would he get a black eye? Would he get very
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: much hurt? Pray goodness, it wasn't that sturdy chap in
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  Speaker 1: the gaiters. Should he rise and begin. What would she
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: think if he brought a black eye to breakfast to morrow?
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  Speaker 1: Is this the man, said mister hoopdriver, with a business
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  Speaker 1: like calm and arms more angular than ever. Eat him,
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  Speaker 1: said the little man with the beard. Eat him straight off.
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  Speaker 1: Steady onn said the young man in the white tie.
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  Speaker 1: Steady on a minute. If I did happen to say
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  Speaker 1: you did, did you, said mister hoopdriver, backing out of it.
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  Speaker 1: Charlie said the young man with the gaiters. Not a bit,
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  Speaker 1: said Charlie. Surely we can pass a bit of a joke.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: I'm going to teach you to keep your jokes to yourself,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: said mister Hoopdriver. Brave wo, said the shepherd of the
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: flock of chins. Charlie is a bit too free with
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: his jokes, said the little man with the beard. It's
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: downright disgusting, said Hoopdriver, falling back upon his speech. A
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: lady can't ride a bicycle in the country road, or
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: wear her dress a little out of the ordinary, but
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: every dirty little greaser must needs go shouting insults. I
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: didn't know the young lady would hear what I said,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: said Charlie. Surely one can speak friendly to one's friends.
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  Speaker 1: How was I to know the door was open? Mister
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: hoopdriver began to suspect that his antagonist was, if possible,
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  Speaker 1: more seriously alarmed, and the prospect of violence and himself
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: and his sperrits rose again. These chaps ought to have
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: a thorough lesson. Of course you knew the door was open,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: he retorted, indignantly. Of course you thought we should hear
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  Speaker 1: what you said. Don't go telling lies about it. It's
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  Speaker 1: no good your saying things like that. You've had your
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  Speaker 1: fun and you meant to have your fun, and I
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  Speaker 1: mean to make an example of you, Sir ginger Beer,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: said the little man with the beard, in a confidential
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: tone to the velveteen jacket. He's a wrecked up this
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  Speaker 1: hot weather, casting its bottles, it's everywhere. What's the good
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  Speaker 1: of scrapping about in a public house, said Charlie, appealing
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  Speaker 1: to the company, A fair fight without interruptions. Now, I
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: wouldn't mind if the gentleman's sworders post. Evidently the man
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: was horribly afraid. Mister hoopdriver grew truculent. Where you like,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: said mister hoopdriver, Just wherever you like, you insulted the
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: gent said the man in velveteen. Don't be a blooming funk,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Charlie said the man in gaiters. Why you got a
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: stone of him? If you got announce what I say
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: is this, said the gentleman with the excessive chintz, trying
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  Speaker 1: to get a hearing by banking his chair arms. If
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  Speaker 1: Charlie goes saying things, he ought to back them up.
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  Speaker 1: That's what I say. I don't mind his saying such
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  Speaker 1: things at all, but he ought to be prepared to
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: bag them up. I'll bag them up, all right, said Charlie,
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  Speaker 1: with extremely bit emphasis on back. If the gentleman likes
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: to come Tuesday week, rot choptain hoopdriver, now ere ere,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: said the owner of the chintz. Never put off till
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: to morrow, Charlie. What you can do to day, said
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: the man in the velveteen coat. You got to do it, Charlie,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: said the man in gaiters. It's no good. It's like this,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: said Charlie, appealing to every one except hoopdriver. Here's me
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: got to take in her ladyship's dinner to morrow night.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: How should I go? With the black eye and going
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: round with the carriage with the split lip. If you
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: don't want your face spoiled, Charlie, why don't you keep
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: your mouth shut? Said the man in gaiters. Exactly, said
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: mister hoopdriver, driving it home with great fierceness. Why don't
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: you shut your ugly mouth. It's as much as my
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: situation's worth, protested Charlie. You should have thought of that before,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: said mister hoopdriver. There's no occasion to be so thundering
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: hot about it. I only meant the thing joking, said Charlie,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: as one gentleman to another. I'm very sorry if the
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: gentleman's annoyed. Everybody began to speak at once. Mister hoopdriver
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: twirled his mistouch. He felt that Charlie's recognition of his
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: gentlemanliness was at any rate a redeeming feature, But it
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: became his pose to ride hard and heavy over the
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: routed to see he shouted some insulting phrase over the tumult.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: You're the regular abject, the man in gaiters were saying
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: to Charlie. More confusion. Only don't think I'm afraid not
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: of a spindle leg cuts like him, shouted Charlie. Because
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: I ain't change of front thought hoopdriver a little startled.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Where are we going? Don't sit there and be abusive,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: said the man in velveteen. He offered to hit you,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: And if I was him, I would hit you now.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: All right, then, said Charlie, with a sudden change of
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: front and springing to his feet. If I must, I
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: must now then, And that hoopdriver, the child of fate,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: rose too, with a horrible sense that his internal monitor
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: was right. Things had taken a turn. He had made
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: a mess of it, and now there was nothing for it,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: as far as he could see, but to hit the
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: man at once. He and Charlie stood six feet apart,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: with a table between both, very breathless and fearce a
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: vulgar fight in a public house, and with what was
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: only too palpably a footman. Good heavens, and this was
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: the dignified, scornful remonstrance. How the Jews had it all happened?
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Go round the table at him, I suppose. But before
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: the brawl could achieve itself, the man in gaiters intervened.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: But here, he said, stepping between the antagonists, every one
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: was standing up. Charlie's artful, said the little man with
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: the beard, Buller's yard, said the man with the gaiters,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: taking the control of the entire affair with the easy
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: readiness of an accomplished practitioner. If the gentlemen don't mind,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Buller's yard, it seemed, was the very place, we'll do
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: the thing regular and decent, if you please. And before
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: he completely realized what was happening, Hoopdriver was being marched
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: out through the back premises of the inn to the
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: first and only fight with fists that was ever to
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: glorify his life. Outwardly, so far as the intermittent moonlight showed,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver was quietly but eagerly preparing to fight. But
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: inwardly he was a chaos of conflicting purposes. It was
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: extraordinary how things happened. One remark had trod so closely
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: on the heels of another that he had had the
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: greatest difficulty in following the development of the business. He
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: distinctly remembered himself walking across from one room to the other,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: a dignified, even an aristocratic figure, framed with considered eloquence,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: intent upon a scathing remonstrance. Today's wretched yokels regarding their manners,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: then incident had flickered into incident until here he was
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: out in a moonlit lane, a slight, dark figure in
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: a group of larger, indistinct figures, marching in a quiet,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: businesslike way towards some unknown horror at Buller's yards. Fists.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: It was astonishing, it was terrible. In front of him
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: was the pallid figure of Charles. And he saw that
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: the man in gaiters held Charles kindly but firmly by
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: the arm. It's blasted rot. Charles was saying, getting up
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: a fight just for a thing like that, all very
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: well for him. He's got his holidays. He hasn't no
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: blessed dinner to take up to morrow night, like I
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: have no need to thaw my arm. Is there They
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: went into Buller's yard through the gates. There were sheds
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: in Buller's yard, sheds of mystery that moonlight could not solve,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: a smell of cows. And a pump stood out, clear
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: and black, throwing a clear black shadow on the whitewashed wall.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: And here it was his face was to be battered
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: to a pulp. He this was the uttermost folly to
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: stand up here and be pounded. But the way out
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: of it was beyond his imagining. Yet afterwards could he
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: ever face her again? He patted his Norflock jacket and
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: took his ground, with his back to the gate. How
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: did one square so? Suppose one were to turn and
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: run even now, run straight back to the inn and
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: lock himself into his bedroom. They couldn't make him come
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: out anyhow, He could prosecute them for assault if they did.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: How did one set about prosecuting for assault? He saw Charles,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: with his face ghastly white under the moon, squaring in
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: front of him. He caught a blow on the arm
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: and gave ground. Charles pressed him. Then he hit with
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: his right and with the violence of despair. It was
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: a hit of his own devising, an impromptu, but it
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: chanced to coincide with the regulation hook. Hit at the head.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: He perceived with a leap of exultation that the thing
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: his fist had met was the jawbone of Charles. It
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: was the sole gleam of pleasure he experienced during the fight,
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: and it was quite momentary. He had hardly got home
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: upon Charles before he was struck in the chest and
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: whirled backward. He had the greatest difficulty in keeping his feet.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: He felt that his heart was smashed flat. God damn,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: said somebody dancing toe in hand somewhere behind him. As
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver's staggered, Charles gave a loud and fear compelling cry.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: He seemed to tower over Hoopdriver in the moonlight. Both
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: his fists were whirling. It was annihilation coming no less.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: Mister Hoopdriver ducked, perhaps and certainly gave ground to the right,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: hit and missed. Charles swept round to the left, missing generously.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: A blow glanced over mister Hoopdriver's left ear, and the
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: flanking movement was completed. Another blow behind the ear. Heaven
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: and earth spun furiously round mister Hoopdriver, and then he
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: became aware of a figure in a light suit shooting
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: violently through an open gate into the night. The man
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: in gaiters sprang forward past mister Hoopdriver, but too late
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: to intercept the fugitive. There were shouts, laughter, and mister Hoopdriver,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: still solemnly squaring, realized the great and wonderful truth. Charles
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: had fled. He Hoopdriver had fought, and by all the
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: rules of war had won. That was a pretty cut
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: under the jaw. You gave him. The toothless little man
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: with the beard was remarking in an unexpectedly friendly manner.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: The fact of it is, said mister Hoopdriver, sitting beside
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: the road to Salisbury, and with the sound of distant
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: church bells in his ears. I had to give the
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: fellow a lesson, simply had to. It seems so dreadful
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: that you should have to knock people about, said Jessie.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: These louts get unbearable, said mister Hoopdriver. If now and
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: then we didn't give them a listen, well, a lady
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: cyclist in the roads would be an impossibility. I suppose
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: every woman shrinks from violence, said Jessie. I suppose men
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: are braver in a way than woman. It seems to me.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: I can't imagine how one could bring oneself to face
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: a room full of rough characters, pick out the bravest
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: and give him an exemplary thrashing. I quail at the idea.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: I thought only Quita's guardsmen did things like that. It
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: was nothing more than my duty as a gentleman, said
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver. But to walk straight into the face of danger,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: it's habit, said mister hoopdriver quite modestly fling off a
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: particle of cigarette ash that had settled on his knee.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: End of Section twelve, recording by Valley