James Herriot’s brake failure turns an everyday country drive into a recurring test of judgment, nerve, and professional responsibility. The danger is not confined to one descent: for several weeks he drives with brakes that have deteriorated from unreliable to entirely useless, repeatedly choosing hazardous routes rather than lengthy detours. A steep road above Worton brings the risk to its climax, while a later near-collision finally makes Siegfried confront the defect Herriot has kept from him.

The Defect and Its Delay

Herriot’s car had once been capable of stopping, although even then forceful braking could send it veering. Its response weakened over time until pressing the pedal produced no effect. He explains that the only way he can now halt it is to crash it into bottom gear. The failure is therefore not a sudden mechanical surprise on the hill but the endpoint of a worsening condition that has already become part of his routine.

Siegfried has been asked to arrange repairs, but assurances that he will see to it do not produce a fix. When Herriot makes a further appeal, Siegfried again says he will arrange matters. At the garage, Mr. Hammond has heard nothing from him. The mechanic tries the car by driving it slowly down the street; it comes to a jolting stop some fifty yards away. His normally composed manner gives way to visible alarm as he walks back to Herriot. The episode establishes that the defect is serious enough to be apparent even during this short test, while the promised repair remains outstanding.

Choosing the Direct Road

On the high ground above Worton, Herriot can see the village below, but the view offers little comfort. The road down has a one-in-four gradient and two sharp S-bends. A safer option is to return to Darrowby and take the lower road, but that would mean a journey of nearly ten miles. The smallholding he needs to visit lies directly below, and he can see Mr. Robinson crossing the yard with a bucket. The immediate purpose of the trip competes with an obvious alternative: make the long detour or descend in a car that cannot brake.

This is not the first time Herriot has faced that choice. He recalls sitting at the edge of hills, weighing the safer route against the quick one, and eventually taking the quick way down. Familiarity has made the danger easier to set aside: after a week or two he can even forget the missing brakes while working on a farm. In one earlier incident, a farmer moved the car to let a tractor pass and reversed it into a barn wall. The collision makes the defect visible to someone else, but the farmer’s understated response does not interrupt Herriot’s pattern of continuing to drive.

The Descent and the Sheep

On the Worton road, Herriot starts the engine and commits to the descent. He keeps the gear lever in bottom gear, using it to restrain the car as he approaches the bends. At the first, the car gathers speed and he has to steer around the curve; the tires lose their hold briefly on loose material at the verge. The next stretch is steeper. Rather than risk going straight over the edge, he turns into the bend, and the car lifts on one side before rocking back upright. He makes it through the following curve and reaches the final bend as the road begins to level.

The apparent escape does not end the danger. On the final straight, he sees hundreds of sheep filling the road from wall to wall. Still travelling downhill, he turns the car into a wall rather than continue into the flock. A few stones slide down as the engine stalls. Herriot stays in the car while the sheep pass, looking at the wall and avoiding conversation with the shepherd. The man passes close by, calls to his dogs, and then looks back at Herriot, but does not intrude. The encounter ends without injury to the flock or further collision, yet the car’s forced stop is no controlled braking: it is another improvised response to a defect that has made an ordinary obstruction dangerous.

Siegfried Discovers the Risk

Herriot remembers the brakeless period with unusual clarity, though it lasted only a few weeks. Its end comes when he and Siegfried travel together to another case and Siegfried takes the wheel. On the main road outside Darrowby, they approach Mr. Hinchcliffe’s Buick as the farmer begins turning across their path towards his farm. Siegfried presses the brake, but the car does not slow, and there is no room to pass on the left.

At the last moment Siegfried turns in the same direction as the Buick. The cars race side by side down the farm drive. Mr. Hinchcliffe stops in the yard, but Siegfried continues around the back of the house, through the stackyard, and back to the front. The route makes it possible to return to the road without stopping beside the Buick; as they pass the astonished farmer, Siegfried manages a small wave. The composure of that gesture contrasts with the peril that has just exposed the failure of the brakes to him.

Once back on the road, Siegfried pulls into a lay-by and sits silently before turning to Herriot. He tells him he cannot understand why he kept the condition to himself, points out that they might have been killed, and says Herriot should have told him. The confrontation changes the story from a private habit of risk-taking into a danger shared with a colleague. The recalled episodes build through repetition—the unrepaired car, the steep roads, the sheep, and finally Siegfried behind the wheel—until the defect can no longer remain an unspoken inconvenience. The account ends with Siegfried’s rebuke; it does not establish when the car is repaired.