On Everything
get full marks in," he said gloomily, looking out of the window. "That's what counts," he added: "none of yer high-falutin' dodgy fellows. When the Colonel said, 'Who's got the most stuff in him?' (not because of the rocks nor because I'm Baron Hogg), they all said, 'That's him.' And that was because I got first in St. Thomas."
To say that I simply could not make head or tail of this would be to say too little: and my muddlement got worse when he added, "That's why the Colonel made me Alderman, and now I go to Paris by right."
Just at that moment the taxi-man put in his head at the window and said, with an aggrieved look:
"Why didn't you tell me where I was going?"
I looked out, and saw that I was in a desolate place near the River Lea, among marshes and chimneys and the poor. There was a rotten-looking shed close by, and a policeman, uncommonly suspicious. My friend got quite excited. He pointed to the policeman and said:
"Oh, how like the pictures! Is it true that they are the Secret Power in England? Now do——"
The taxi-man got quite angry, and pointed out to me that his cab was not a caravan. He further informed me that it had been my business to tell him the way to the "Angel." His asset was that if he dropped me there I would be in a bad way; mine was that if I paid him off there he would be in a worse one. We bargained and quarrelled, and as
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