Unseen Academicals

there with you.’
    ‘You’ve no idea,’ said Glenda.
    ‘Of course, all he’s saying is you’ve got to do your best,’ said the driver. ‘And the more best you’re capable of, the more you should do. That’s it, really.’
    Glenda nodded. That did seem to be it, really. ‘Do you go straight back?’ she said.
    ‘No. Me and the horses are stopping here and will go back in the morning.’ He gave her the wry look of a man who’s heard a great many things, and surprisingly seen a great many things, when to those behind him he was just a head facing forward keeping an eye on the road. ‘That was a wonderful kiss she give me. I’ll tell you what, the bus will be in the yard, there’s plenty of straw around and if anyone was to have a bit of a kip, I wouldn’t know about it, would I? We’ll leave at six with fresh horses.’ He grinned at her expression. ‘I told you, we get all sorts on the late-night bus: kids running away from home, wives running away from husbands, husbands running away from other wives’ husbands. It’s called an omnibus, see, and omni means everything and damn near everything happens on this bus, that’s why I have the axe, see? But the way I see it, life can’t be all axe.’ He raised his voice: ‘Sto Lat coming up, folks! Return trip six o’clock prompt.’ He winked at Glenda. ‘And if you’re not there, I’ll go withoutcha,’ he said. ‘You’ve got to catch the bus at bus-catching time.’
    ‘Well, this hasn’t been so bad, has it?’ said Glenda, as the lights of the city grew bigger.
    ‘My dad’s going to fret,’ said Juliet.
    ‘He’ll think you’re with me.’
    Trev said nothing. By the rules of the street, being exposed in front of your want-to-be girlfriend as the kind of man who can so easily be seen not to be the kind of man that would have the guts to belt someone over the head with a length of lead pipe was extremely shaming, although no one seemed to have noticed this.
    ‘Looks like a bit of trouble ahead,’ the driver called back. ‘The Lancre Flyer ain’t gone.’
    All they could see were flares and lantern lights, illuminating the big coaching inn outside the city gate, where several coaches were standing. As they drew nearer, he called to one of the skinny, bandy-legged and weaselly-looking men who seemed to self-generate around any establishment that involved the movement of horses. ‘Flyer not gone?’ he enquired.
    The weaselly man removed a cigarette end from his mouth. ‘ ’orse frowed a shoe.’
    ‘Well? They’ve got a smith ’ere, ain’t they? Speed the mails and all that.’
    ‘He’s not speedin’ nuffink on account of him just laminating his hand to the anvil,’ said the man.
    ‘There’ll be the devil to pay if the Flyer don’t go,’ said the driver. ‘That’s post, that is. You should be able to set your watch by the Flyer.’
    Nutt stood up. ‘I could certainly re-shoe a horse for you, sir,’ he said, picking up his wooden toolbox. ‘Perhaps you had better go and tell someone.’
    The man sidled off and the bus came to rest in the big yard, where a rather better dressed man came hurrying up. ‘One of you a smith?’ he enquired, looking directly at Glenda.
    ‘Me,’ said Nutt.
    The man stared. ‘You don’t look much like a smith, sir.’
    ‘Contrary to popular belief, most smiths are on the wiry side rather than bulky. It’s all a matter of sinews rather than muscle.’
    ‘And you know your way around an anvil, do you?’
    ‘You would be amazed, sir.’
    ‘There’s shoes in the smithy,’ said the man. ‘You’ll have to work one to size.’
    ‘I know how to do that,’ said Nutt. ‘Mister Trev, I would be glad if you would come and help me with the bellows.’

    The inn was huge and crowded, because as with coaching inns everywhere its day lasted for twenty-four hours and not a moment less. There were no meal times, as such. Hot food for those who could afford it was available all the time and cold cuts of meat were on a large trestle in the main room. People arrived, were emptied and refilled in the speediest time possible and sent on their way again because the space was needed for the next arrivals. There never seemed to be a moment without the jangle of harnesses. Glenda found a quiet corner. ‘I tell you what,’ she said to Juliet, ‘go and fetch some sandwiches for the lads.’
    ‘Fancy Mister Nutt being a blacksmith,’ said Juliet.
    ‘He’s a man of many parts,’ said