He was a saturnine-looking man with a distinctly anti-social
suggestion; but after a while he began to talk. We discussed one thing
and another, and casually he remarked that he was connected with the
motor industry--as indeed all men whom one cannot immediately place now
are.
He did not build cars, he said, or design them, or sell them. What then
did he do?
"My task is a peculiar one," he said, "and you might never guess it.
It is wholly concerned with taxi-cabs. I am an inspector of taxi-cab
windows."
He looked at me as with a challenge.
"It is your duty," I inquired, with a horrible feeling that I could not
congratulate him on his efficiency, "to inspect the windows and see
that they are in good order?"
"To inspect the windows--yes," he replied; "but not for the purpose you
name."
"Then why inspect them?" I asked warmly. "What is wanted is some one
to see that the wretched things can be manipulated. I would bet that
out of every ten cabs I am in not more than two have windows that will
work."
"Two!" he mused. "That's a very high percentage. I must see to that."
"High!" I exclaimed.
"Yes, high," he repeated. "You see, my duty is to visit the garages all
over London before the cabs go out and see that the windows won't work.
If they do work I disarrange them. That's my job."
"But why?" I gasped.
"Haven't you noticed how much worse they have been lately, and that,
when you take a cab off the rank, the windows are always down when you
get in, however bad the weather?"
"Yes," I said, "Everyone must have noticed it."
"Well," he continued, "that's my doing. That's my job."
"But why?" I repeated.
"Just a part of the general scheme of getting the War into people's
minds," he said. "The darkening of London, the closing of the
public-houses, the defective cab windows--they're all of a piece. Only
the cab-window trick is the most useful."
"How?" I asked.
"Well, it hardens you," he said. "It accustoms you to cold and wet, and
that's all to the good."
So now I know.
* * * * *
"Around Souraine there have been violet combats.... We have
made considerable progress in the region."--French communiqué, as
reported in _The Western Evening Herald._
We know that Battles of Flowers are a speciality of our comrades of
France, and we are not surprised to hear that the enemy was beaten at
this exchange of gallantries.
* * * * *