Mr. Makepeace agreed with alacrity, and when he understood that his prospective customer was ready to start then and there, he put his entire staff on to “take the rough off her.” French stood watching the operation while he chatted pleasantly with the proprietor. Having duly admired the vehicle, he went on in a more serious voice: “There’s just one thing that puts me against taking her, and that’s something that Mr. Daw told me in the course of conversation. He said that on that night when Mr. Berlyn met his death the car broke down, in fact that it was that breakdown which led indirectly to the accident. Well, I don’t want a car that breaks down. If she’s not reliable, she’s no good to me.” Mr. Makepeace looked pained and flashed a rather indignant glance at the sergeant. “She did break down that night,” he admitted, reluctantly, “but there’s no machinery on earth that won’t _sometimes_ go wrong. She failed from a most uncommon cause, and she might run for twenty years without the same thing happening to her again.” “I’m not doubting your word, Mr. Makepeace, but I shall want that clearly demonstrated before I think of her. What was it that went wrong?” “Magneto trouble; armature burnt out.” “What caused it?” “It’s hard to say; there was no defect showing outwardly. Careless handling, most likely. Some darned mechanic might have jabbed a screwdriver into the wire and covered up the mark. I’ve known that to happen.” “But it surely wouldn’t run if that had been done?” “Oh yes, it might. If the insulation wasn’t completely cut through it would run for a time. But eventually the short would develop, causing the engine to misfire, and that would get worse till it stopped altogether.” “That’s interesting. Then you think the fault would only develop if there had been some original injury?” “I don’t say that. I have known cases of short circuits occurring and you couldn’t tell what caused them.” “I suppose you could do that sort of thing purposely if you wanted to?” “Purposely?” Mr. Makepeace shot a keen glance at his questioner. “Yes. Suppose in this case some one wanted to play a practical joke on Mr. Berlyn.” Mr. Makepeace shook his head with some scorn. “Not blooming likely,” he declared. “A fine sort of joke that would be.” “I was asking purely from curiosity, but you surprise me, all the same. I thought you could short circuit any electric machine?” “Don’t you believe it. You couldn’t do nothing to short an armature without the damage showing.” “Well, I’m not worrying whether you could or not. All I want is that it won’t fail again.” “You may go nap on that.” “All right,” French smiled. “Did you rewind the armature yourselves?” “Neither unwound it nor rewound it. That’s a job for the makers. We sent it to London. It’s an Ardlo magneto and the Ardlo people have a factory in Bermondsey.” “That so? I suppose the short circuit was the only trouble? The engine hadn’t been hot or anything?”