In two ticks I had got the number plates off and I breathed a great sigh of relief when I had stowed them safely away in my breast pocket.
Then I turned my attention to the engine, and I glowed with self-congratulation that I had come prepared for everything. Yes, there was its number right enough, upon the lower side of the crank case, as glaring a piece of evidence perhaps as the number-plates themselves.
I had brought a file with me, and throwing the machine down I very quickly cut deep into the aluminium. I knew something about photography, and had read how a photograph will reveal markings invisible to the naked eye. So I cut deep to make certain that the stamping marks should be beyond all camera disclosures, and I prepared to desist only when I had made a deep concavity in the met
