to his seat behind the chauffeur. He was a gentleman with short grey hair. His intelligent, clear grey eyes were open, but he seemed to be seriously hurt; at least, blood flowed from his mouth and he held his neck askew and rigid.

“Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Gustav. We have taken the liberty of shooting your chauffeur. May we inquire whom we have the honour to address?”

The old man looked at us coolly and sadly out of his small grey eyes.

“I am the Attorney-General Loering,” he said slowly. “You have not only killed my poor chauffeur, but me too, I fancy. Why did you shoot on us?”

“For exceeding the speed limit.”

“We were not travelling at more than normal speed.”

“What was normal yesterday is no longer normal today, Mr. Attorney-General. We are of the opinion that whatever speed a motorcar travels is too great. We are destroying all motorcars and all other machines also.”