But the driver’s unsafe seat was not the only weak point about the back-door cab. The facilities it offered for alighting without paying, soon made “bilking” a popular amusement with a certain class of people. A somewhat rackety young peer proved, for a wager, how easy it was to “bilk” a cabman. He hailed a cab outside his club and told the cabby to drive him to a certain address at Hammersmith. Just before he arrived at his destination he got out unobserved, and from a distance watched cabby’s surprise and wrath on discovering his vehicle to be empty. After a time the cabman started back for town, and the youthful lord, seizing his opportunity, re-entered the cab, and shouted almost immediately, in well-assumed anger, “Hi, you rascal! Where are you driving me? I told you to take me to Hammersmith.” The cabman, speechless with astonishment, turned round and made for Hammersmith once more, only however to discover on arriving there, that his “fare” had disappeared again. He became convinced that his cab was haunted, and this belief was strengthened, as he drove back through Kensington by discovering suddenly that his fare was sitting calmly in his vehicle as if nothing had happened. Cabby did not utter a word, for he was too frightened to address his “fare,” but drove to the club, where he had picked him up, as quickly as possible. There the young peer alighted, and, without the slightest explanation, paid the cabman five times his fare. CHAPTER III Hansom invents a cab--Chapman designs and patents the present hansom--Francis Moore’s vehicles--The Hansom patent infringed--Litigation a failure--Pirate cabs called “shofuls”--The “Clarence” or four-wheeler introduced--An unpleasant fare--The decoration of cabs--Cabmen compelled to wear badges--The “Tribus”--The “Curricle Tribus”--The “Quartobus.” The prevalence of “bilking” made the back-door cab such an unprofitable vehicle that a new style of cab became imperative. [Illustration: THE FIRST HANSOM.]