I flatter myself that I am a man who is not easily disconcerted, but for the second time that day I was completely taken aback.

I had watched that cab so closely, had followed its progress so carefully, that it seemed impossible Hayle could have escaped from it.

Yet there was the fact, apparent to all the world, that he had got away.

I looked from the cab to the cabman and then at my own driver, who had descended from his perch and was standing beside me.
"Well, I wouldn't have believed it," I said aloud, when I had recovered somewhat my astonishment.
My own driver, who had doubtless begun to think that the sovereign I had promised him was in danger, was inclined to be somewhat bellicose.

It appeared as if he were anxious to make a personal matter of it, and in proof of this he sternly demanded of his rival what he had done with his fare.
"You don't think I've ate him, do yer ?" asked that worthy.