At the top of the hill Meldon had a lead of a full quarter of a mile.

Then the left pedal of his bicycle came off, and he was obliged to dismount.

He was working at it with a spanner when O'Donoghue, breathless and in a bad temper, came up with him.

Meldon greeted him cheerfully.
"Obstinate old swine the judge is," he said.

"You would have thought a man like that whose business in life consists very largely in weighing evidence, and who has been specially trained to arrive at sound conclusions from the facts presented to him, would have seen the necessity of giving up this ridiculous expedition of his to Ballymoy." "Why did you ride on like that and leave me behind ?" said O'Donoghue shortly.
"If I were inclined to be captious and wanted to find fault," said Meldon, "I might say why did you lag behind and leave me to ride by myself?
I don't want to ride by myself.