As Muriel sat next to him on these
expeditions, Roland squashing into the tonneau with Frank and Percy,
his torments were subtle. He was not given a chance to forget, and the
only way in which he could obtain a momentary diminution of the agony
was to increase the speed to sixty miles an hour.
It was in this fashion that they journeyed to the neighboring town of
Lexingham to see M. Etienne Feriaud perform his feat of looping the
loop in his aeroplane.
It was Brother Frank's idea that they should make up a party to go and
see M. Feriaud. Frank's was one of those generous, unspoiled natures
which never grow _blas?_ at the sight of a fellow human taking a
sporting chance at hara-kiri. He was a well-known figure at every wild
animal exhibition within a radius of fifty miles, and M. Feriaud drew
him like a magnet.
"The blighter goes up," he explained, as he conducted the party into
the arena, "and then he stands on his head and goes round in circles.
I've seen pictures of it."
It appeared that M. Feriaud did even more than this. Posters round the
ground advertised the fact that, on receipt of five pounds, he would
take up a passenger with him.
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