"No, no, Mr. Caspar," he scolded soothingly. "They don't want old fellows like you and me to do the bludgeon business. Our sons'll do all that's necessary in that line."
He packed the elderly truant away in the car.
Mr. Caspar sat beside his wife, his hands folded on the handle of his umbrella, looking as determined as he knew how.
Mrs. Caspar tucked a rug about his knees.
Ernie, who had followed his father out to the car, and exchanged a word with his brother sitting stiff as an idol, behind his wheel, now returned to the yard, grinning.
"Asked Alf if _he_ was goin to sign on?" he grinned.
"Not Alf!" he said. "He's a true Christian, Alf is, when there's scrapping on the tape..."
At the club a few days later, when the trouble had blown over, the Colonel asked Mr. Trupp if Ernie was ill.
"He seemed so slack," he said, with a genuine concern.
"So he is," growled the old surgeon. "He wants the Lash--that's all."
"Different from his brother," mused the Colonel--"that chauffeur feller of yours. He's keen enough from what I can see."
"Alf's ambitious," he said. "That's his spur. Starting in a big way on his own now. Sussex is going to blossom out into Caspar's Garages, he tells me. I'm going to put money in the company. Some men draw money. Alf's one."
Alf's great scheme indeed was prospering.
Thwarted by the Woman, and driven back upon himself, he had taken up the career of action at the point where he had left it to pursue an adventure that had brought him no profit and incredible bitterness.
Just at the moment Ruth had baffled him, another enemy of his, the Red Cross Garage Syndicate, which in the early days of his career had throttled him, came to grief.
Alf saw his chance, and flung himself into the new project with such characteristic energy as to drown the bitterness of sex-defeat. He had no difficulty in raising the necessary capital for the little Syndicate he proposed to start. Some he possessed himself; his bank was quite prepared to give him accommodation up to a point; and there was a third source he tapped with glee. That source was Captain Royal. Alf was in a position to squeeze the Captain; and he was not the man to forego an advantage, however acquired.
Royal put a fifth of his patrimony into the venture, and was by no means displeased to do so. Thereby he became the principal shareholder in the concern, with a predominant voice in its affairs. That gave him the leverage against Alf, which, with the instinct of a commander, he had seen to be necessary for the security of his future directly that young man showed a blackmailing tendency. Moreover Royal was not blind to the consideration that the new Syndicate, under able management, bid fair to be a singularly profitable investment.