My Friend the ChauffeurWilliamson, C. N. (Charles Norris)
General
My Friend the Chauffeur
Williamson, C. N. (Charles Norris)
Automobiles -- Fiction; Europe -- Fiction; Voyages and travels -- Fiction
When Mr. Barrymore saw that this was more than a passing whim, he called
Sir Ralph to the rescue, Beechy and I jumped out, and the car was pushed
to one side. Then, with all of us standing round, he proceeded to search
for the mischief. Apparently nothing was wrong. The engine was cool;
the pump generously inclined, and fat yellow fireflies flew out of the
sparking-plugs when they were tested. Then Mr. Barrymore remembered the
cause of the Prince's first accident, and looked at the carburetter; but
there was not so much as a speck of dust. For a while he continued to
poke, and prod, and hammer, Sir Ralph offering humorous advice, and
pretending to be sure that, if his housekeeper Felicite were on the
spot, the car would start for her in an instant. The mystery only
thickened, however, and to make matters worse the Prince, who had been
proudly spinning on ahead, came tearing back to see what had happened.
Though he pretended to be sympathetic, he was visibly overjoyed at our
misfortune, which turned the tables upon us for once, and his
suggestions were enough to wreck the valvular system of a motor-car; not
to mention the nervous system of a distracted chauffeur.
"Perhaps the petrol's dead," said Mr. Barrymore, paying no heed to the
Prince's ideas. He opened a new tin and was about to empty its contents
into the reservoir, when he uttered an exclamation. "By Jove! Just look
at that, Miss Destrey!" he said; and I couldn't help feeling flattered
that he should appeal to me on a subject I didn't know anything about.
He was peering at the small round air-hole leading down to the
reservoir, so I peered too, and in spite of my ignorance I saw what he
meant. The hole was entirely stopped up with the body of a pinkish-grey
caterpillar, and Mr. Barrymore explained that the poor car had simply
stopped because it couldn't breathe. No air had been able to reach the
petrol in the reservoir, and therefore no spirit had trickled through to
the carburetter.
We had been delayed for more than half an hour by a mere worm, which had
probably arrived with the clover; but when the automobile could fill her
lungs again she started on at a great pace. We passed a wonderful old
riverside town, that had one of the most remarkable churches we had seen
yet; and by-and-by a fine city, set like a tiara on the forehead of a
distant hill, seemed to spring up, peer at us from its eminence, and
then dip down out of sight among other hills which made a dark
foreground against white mountains.
It was Bergamo; and not once did we see it again until we were almost in
the place, when it deigned to show itself once more--an old, old city on
a height, a newer city extended at its feet in a plain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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