Here I met nobody, but
it was taking me too far north, so I slewed east along a bad track
and finally struck a big double-line railway. Away below me I saw
another broadish valley, and it occurred to me that if I crossed it I
might find some remote inn to pass the night. The evening was now
drawing in, and I was furiously hungry, for I had eaten nothing since
breakfast except a couple of buns I had bought from a baker's cart.
just then I heard a noise in the sky, and lo and behold there was
that infernal aeroplane, flying low, about a dozen miles to the south
and rapidly coming towards me.
I had the sense to remember that on a bare moor I was at the
aeroplane's mercy, and that my only chance was to get to the leafy
cover of the valley. Down the hill I went like blue lightning,
screwing my head round, whenever I dared, to watch that damned
flying machine. Soon I was on a road between hedges, and dipping
to the deep-cut glen of a stream. Then came a bit of thick wood
where I slackened speed.
Suddenly on my left I heard the hoot of another car, and realized
to my horror that I was almost up on a couple of gate-posts through
which a private road debouched on the highway. My horn gave an
agonized roar, but it was too late. I clapped on my brakes, but my
impetus was too great, and there before me a car was sliding
athwart my course.
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