On Mr jopley's head I clapped
Turnbull's unspeakable hat, and told him to keep it there.
Then with some difficulty I turned the car. My plan was to go
back the road he had come, for the watchers, having seen it before,
would probably let it pass unremarked, and Marmie's figure was in
no way like mine.
'Now, my child,' I said, 'sit quite still and be a good boy. I mean
you no harm. I'm only borrowing your car for an hour or two. But
if you play me any tricks, and above all if you open your mouth, as
sure as there's a God above me I'll wring your neck. SAVEZ?'
I enjoyed that evening's ride. We ran eight miles down the
valley, through a village or two, and I could not help noticing
several strange-looking folk lounging by the roadside. These were
the watchers who would have had much to say to me if I had come
in other garb or company. As it was, they looked incuriously on.
One touched his cap in salute, and I responded graciously.
As the dark fell I turned up a side glen which, as I remember
from the map, led into an unfrequented corner of the hills. Soon
the villages were left behind, then the farms, and then even the
wayside cottage. Presently we came to a lonely moor where the
night was blackening the sunset gleam in the bog pools. Here we
stopped, and I obligingly reversed the car and restored to Mr
jopley his belongings.
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