THE KITES AND THE MAGISTRATES 61 



by having his top hat pulled off by a string which reached 

 from hedge to hedge across a road and just caught the 

 hat as he was riding home from his magisterial duties, 

 fhis was in fact the ultimate string of three kites which 

 I and another boy had been flying, under the instructions 

 of Mr Kingsley, the Kilvington rector. The first kite 

 was six feet high, and when that had carried out as much 

 string as it could support, the string was fastened to the 

 back of a seven-foot kite, which again took out a goodly 

 length of thicker string. Then came the eight-foot kite, 

 to the back of which the second line was attached, and 

 we had stout whipcord on a sort of windlass, made some- 

 thing like the reel of a fishing-rod, and with legs driven 

 deep into the ground to enable us to control the whole 

 three. In this way we used to fly the first kite almost 

 out of sight, but on the occasion in question the wind 

 was strong and a weak spot had developed in our last 

 line of whipcord, which gave way, and of course we had 

 to pursue the kites across country. As ill luck would 

 have it, the line crossed the road where Mr Lloyd was 

 trotting jauntily home, and, as I have said, it caught his 

 top hat, which fell clattering in the road just as I and my 

 friend came up on the track of the string. 



We were quick enough to drop flat on the other side 

 of the hedge, while the great man dismounted, using 

 anything but magisterial language, and recovered his 

 much-damaged hat. We lay there quaking while he 

 seized on the string and began hauling in the slack from 

 the broken side, throwing it in a tangled mass over the 

 far-side hedge as he did so. There was at least a quarter 

 of a mile of string for him to deal with in this way, and it 

 took him fully ten minutes to get to the end of it where 

 the break had been. He then remounted and rode on 

 his way, feeling, no doubt, that he had done his duty, 

 and we lay there all the time undiscovered : but I told my 

 father about it all, and he told Mr Lloyd, who, doubtless, 

 only laughed, but to me it was represented that the great 

 man had ascertained by secret agency who had done him 



