“But he’s Daddy’s offiss-partner man,” Judy objected, though

without much vim or heat.

Maria did not answer. Her eyes were glued upon the other engine.

“All black and burnt and—full of the very horridest diseases,” put

in Tim, referring to the heart of the destroyed Mr. Jinks beneath the

engine.

He glanced up enticingly at his elder sister, whom he longed to

draw into the vindictive holocaust.

“He said things to Maria,” he explained persuasively, “and it’s not

the first time either. Last Sunday he called me ‘his little man,’ and

he’s never given me a single thing since ever I can remember, years

and years ago.”

Then Judy remembered that he invariably kissed her on both cheeks

as though she was a silly little child.

“Oh, that man!” she exclaimed, realising fully now the

enormities he had committed. She appeared to hesitate a moment. Then

she flung down her Apocalypse suddenly. “Put him on a scarlet horse,”

she cried, “pretend he’s the Beast, and I’ll come.”

Maria’s blue eyes wheeled half a circle towards Tim. She did not

move her head. It signified agreement. Tim knew. Only her consent, as

the insulted party, was necessary before he could approve.

“All right,” he cried to Judy. “We’ll put him in a special carriage

with his horse, and I’ll make out a label for the window, so that

every one will know.” He went over to the table and wrote “BEAST” in

capital letters on a half-sheet of paper. The cumbersome quill pen

made two spongy blots.

“It’s the end of the world really at the same time,” decided

Judy, to a chorus of general approval, “not only the end of Mr.

Jinks.” She liked her horrors on a proper scale.

And the railway line was quickly laid across the room from the

window to the wall. The lamps of oil on both engines were lit. The

trains faced one another. Mr. Jinks and his scarlet horse thought

themselves quite safe in their special carriage, unaware that it was

labelled “Beast” with a label that overlapped the roof and hid all

view of the landscape through the windows on one side. Apparently they

slept in opposite corners, with full consciousness of complete

security. Mr. Jinks was tucked up with woolly rugs, and a newspaper

lay across his knee. The scarlet horse had its head in a bag of oats,

and its bridle was fastened to the luggage rack above.