“Yes, sir. I had scarcely left you when the solution of the affair presented itself to me. It was a remark of Mr. Filmer’s that gave me the idea.”
“Jeeves, you’re a marvel!”
“Thank you very much, sir.”
“What was the solution?”
“I conceived the notion of going to Mr. Filmer and saying that it was you who had stolen his boat, sir.”
The man flickered before me. I clutched a sock in a feverish grip.
“Saying—what?”
“At first Mr. Filmer was reluctant to credit my statement. But I pointed out to him that you had certainly known that he was on the island—a fact which he agreed was highly significant. I pointed out, furthermore, that you were a lighthearted young gentleman, sir, who might well do such a thing as a practical joke. I left him quite convinced, and there is now no danger of his attributing the action to Master Thomas.”
I gazed at the blighter spellbound.
“And that’s what you consider a neat solution?” I said.
“Yes, sir. Mr. Little will now retain his position as desired.”
“And what about me?”
“You are also benefited, sir.”
“Oh, I am, am I?”
“Yes, sir. I have ascertained that Mrs. Gregson’s motive in inviting you to this house was that she might present you to Mr. Filmer with a view to your becoming his private secretary.”
“What!”
“Yes, sir. Purvis, the butler, chanced to overhear Mrs. Gregson in conversation with Mr. Filmer on the matter.”
“Secretary to that superfatted bore! Jeeves, I could never have survived it.”
“No, sir. I fancy you would not have found it agreeable. Mr. Filmer is scarcely a congenial companion for you. Yet, had Mrs. Gregson secured the position for you, you might have found it embarrassing to decline to accept it.”
“Embarrassing is right!”
“Yes, sir.”
“But I say, Jeeves, there’s just one point which you seem to have overlooked. Where exactly do I get off?”
“Sir?”
“I mean to say, Aunt Agatha sent word by Purvis just now that she wanted to see me. Probably she’s polishing up her hatchet at this very moment.”
“It might be the most judicious plan not to meet her, sir.”
“But how can I help it?”
“There is a good, stout waterpipe running down the wall immediately outside this window, sir. And I could have the two-seater waiting outside the park gates in twenty minutes.”
I eyed him with reverence.
“Jeeves,” I said, “you are always right. You couldn’t make it five, could you?”
“Let us say ten, sir.”
“Ten it is. Lay out some raiment suitable for travel, and leave the rest to me. Where is this waterpipe of which you speak so highly?”
Colophon
Jeeves Stories
was compiled from short stories published between 1915 and 1926 by
P. G. Wodehouse.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
B. Timothy Keith,
and is based on transcriptions produced between 2003 and 2019 by
Tim Lindell, Martin Pettit, Suzanne L. Shell, Charles Franks, and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive (The Inimitable Jeeves, The Man with Two Left Feet, The Saturday Evening Post, The Strand Magazine 1916–17 and Carry On, Jeeves) and Carry On, Jeeves) and HathiTrust Digital Library (The Strand Magazine 1926).
The cover page is adapted from
The Arrow Collars Man,
a painting completed around 1922 by
J. C. Leyendecker.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.
The first edition of this ebook was released on
September 19, 2019, 9:46 p.m.
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
standardebooks.org/ebooks/p-g-wodehouse/jeeves-stories.
The volunteer-driven Standard Ebooks project relies on readers like you to submit typos, corrections, and other improvements. Anyone can contribute at standardebooks.org.
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