A
minute or two later I heard their steps on the gravel outside the window.
My plan had been to lie hid in my bedroom, and see what
happened. I had a notion that, if I could bring the police and my
other more dangerous pursuers together, something might work
out of it to my advantage. But now I had a better idea. I scribbled a
line of thanks to my host, opened the window, and dropped quietly
into a gooseberry bush. Unobserved I crossed the dyke, crawled
down the side of a tributary burn, and won the highroad on the far
side of the patch of trees. There stood the car, very spick and span
in the morning sunlight, but with the dust on her which told of a
long journey. I started her, jumped into the chauffeur's seat, and
stole gently out on to the plateau.
Almost at once the road dipped so that I lost sight of the inn,
but the wind seemed to bring me the sound of angry voices.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Adventure of the Radical Candidate
You may picture me driving that 40 h.p. car for all she was worth
over the crisp moor roads on that shining May morning; glancing
back at first over my shoulder, and looking anxiously to the next
turning; then driving with a vague eye, just wide enough awake to
keep on the highway. For I was thinking desperately of what I had
found in Scudder's pocket-book.
The little man had told me a pack of lies.
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