Jack on the Box Read Free Page B

hastened up the street, leaving Jack to wonder how Davies would react to this serious breech of the rules.
    Once the coach was loaded with its full complement of passengers, Jack drove the horses down the few blocks to the end of town and pulled them up. A young gentleman from Oxford had secured the box seat by paying a judicious tip to the ostler. He looked at Jack questioningly as the horses stopped and the young lady stepped up to the wheel.
    “Sorry, old fellow,” Jack told him, “but I must appeal to you as a gentleman to relinquish your seat to this lady. Her mother is ill, and she must catch this mail to arrive at her side as quickly as possible.”
    The young man tipped his hat to the fair usurper, but spoke as one who must reluctantly point out the obvious. “I should be delighted, of course, but all the seats on the roof are bespoken.”
    Jack peered behind him as if only now aware that such was the case. “I see—yes—you are quite right,” he mused aloud. “That does present a problem.” He turned back to the gentleman and looked him over gravely. “Sir, may I trust you to ride on the rear of the roof near the guard? It is against postal regulations, as you know, but in this instance I think an exception could be made.”
    The young man eagerly assured him that he could be trusted, saying that nothing would be further from his mind than robbing His Majesty’s Mail, if only he might take one shot at a rabbit with the guard’s blunderbuss. Hiding a smile, Jack assured him, with perfect untruth, that he was certain Davies would be delighted to oblige, if the young gentleman would only climb to the rear and explain the situation to him.
    Overjoyed by the prospect of this rare privilege, the passenger hastened to assume the forbidden seat, despite the grumblings of the three on the roof as he stumbled past them. Davies had been standing while this transaction took place, waiting with a patient frown for Jack to resume the journey. The young man spoke to him in rapid undertones, and to Jack’s intense relief, Davies merely gave him a sardonic grimace before settling himself again on his perch.
    Silently hoping that his exemplary behaviour to date had purchased him the right to this one transgression, Jack jumped to the ground to hand his gentle passenger up onto the box.
    But the stopping of the coach had alerted the people inside to the fact that something unusual was taking place. One woman in particular took offense at the sight of the lady waiting below. Sticking her red, pox-marked face out the window, she defied Jack to let “that creature” aboard.
    The young lady glanced worriedly up at him and, in the face of the woman’s assault, seemed to be questioning the wisdom of the step she was about to take. But her hesitation lasted no more than a moment. As soon as she saw Jack’s reassuring smile, she straightened her small shoulders and, accepting the use of his arm to help her mount, climbed upon the wooden seat.
           Jack could see that she was unaccustomed to such abuse, and he admired the self-possession which had led her to ignore it. He, however, had to answer to all of his passengers. So, suppressing a sigh of annoyance at the torrent of slander continuing to emanate from the coach, he walked back to deal with the discontented woman.
    “I shall have you reported to the authorities,” she threatened as he approached the door.
    Jack smiled and addressed her with a marked degree of deference. “I encourage you to do so, madam. It troubles me to offend you in any way, but as I can see it, there is only one solution. I feel obliged to help the lady, who is on the way to her mother’s deathbed and cannot find any means to get there quickly on her own. I would have asked one of you to give up your seat, but I did not wish to cause you any inconvenience.”
    Startled by the thought that they might be asked to give up their seats, the other passengers retired willingly from the fray. The