One day, when Danno was twelve, Dreenlomane school was host to an inspector. The inspector stayed until the end of the day and then left in his car. The night before had seen a lot of rain and while driving along the road he got into difficulty: his front right-hand wheel slipped into a roadside drain. Danno happened to be going in the same direction and soon came upon the car. When the inspector saw him he told him to go for help, but Danno just laughed and said ‘I’ll get you out of that, sir’, and he did. He took hold of the back bumper and simply lifted the car back onto the road, to the amazement of the inspector, who was so grateful that he presented Danno with a ten-shilling note—a lot of money for a schoolboy in those days.