Part 2 (2/2)

He watched me with a smile 'I don't want proof I may be an ass on the platform, but I can size up a man You're nothe truth I' to back you up Nohat can I do?'

'First, I want you to write a letter to your uncle I've got to get in touch with the Government people sometime before the 15th of June'

He pulled his n Office business, andto do with it Besides, you'd never convince hio one better I'll write to the Pern Office He'sWhat do you want?'

He sat down at a table and wrote to ist of it was that if a ht I had better stick to that name) turned up before June 15th he was to entreat him kindly He said Twisdon would prove his bona fides by passing the word 'Black Stone' and whistling 'Annie Laurie'

'Good,' said Sir Harry 'That's the proper style By the way, you'll find my Godfather - his nae for Whitsuntide It's close to Artinswell on the Kenner That's done Nohat's the next thing?'

'You're aboutwill do, so long as the colour is the opposite of the clothes I destroyed this afternoon Then show hbourhood and explain tolen If the other lot turn up, tell the'

He did, or pros I shaved off the reot inside an ancient suit of what I believe is called heather ave s I wanted to knohere the main railway to the south could be joined and ere the wildest districts near at hand At two o'clock he wakened -rooht An old bicycle was found in a tool-shed and handed over tofir-wood,' he enjoined 'By daybreak you'll be well into the hills Then I should pitch theand take to thethe shepherds, and be as safe as if you were in New Guinea'

I pedalled diligently up steep roads of hill gravel till the skies grew pale withAs the reen world with glens falling on every side and a far-away blue horizon Here, at any rate, I could get early news of my enemies

CHAPTER FIVE

The Adventure of the Spectacled Roadman

I sat down on the very crest of the pass and took stock of h a long cleft in the hills, which was the upper glen of some notable river In front was a flat space of h with tussocks, and then beyond it the road fell steeply down another glen to a plain whose blue diht were round-shouldered green hills as smooth as pancakes, but to the south - that is, the left hand - there was a glih heatheryknot of hill which I had chosen for e upland country, and could see everythingfor e sn of hu of plovers and the tinkling of little streams

It was now about seven o'clock, and as I waited I heard once again that oround ht be in reality a trap There was no cover for a toreen places

I sat quite still and hopeless while the beat grew louder Then I saw an aeroplane coh, but as I looked it dropped several hundred feet and began to circle round the knot of hill in narrowing circles, just as a haheels before it pounces Noas flying very low, and now the observer on board caught sight of h glasses

Suddenly it began to rise in shorls, and the next I kneas speeding eastward again till it beca

ThatMy ene would be a cordon round me I didn't knohat force they could command, but I was certain it would be sufficient The aeroplane had seen my bicycle, and would conclude that I would try to escape by the road In that case there ht or left I wheeled the ed it into apond-weed and water-buttercups Then I cliavewhite ribbon that threaded them

I have said there was not cover in the whole place to hide a rat As the day advanced it was flooded with soft fresh light till it had the fragrant sunniness of the South African veld At other times I would have liked the place, but now it seemed to suffocate me The free moorlands were prison walls, and the keen hill air was the breath of a dungeon

I tossed a coin - heads right, tails left - and it fell heads, so I turned to the north In a little I ca wall of the pass I saw the highroad for , and that I took to be a reen lens

Now iven s for which most men need a telescopeAway down the slope, a couple oflike a row of beaters at a shoot

I dropped out of sight behind the sky-line That as shut to er hills to the south beyond the highway The car I had noticed was getting nearer, but it was still a long way off with so low except in the hollows, and as I ran I kept scanning the brow of the hill before ures - one, two, perhaps len beyond the stream?

If you are hemmed in on all sides in a patch of land there is only one chance of escape You must stay in the patch, and let your eneood sense, but how on earth was I to escape notice in that table-cloth of a place? I would have buried myself to the neck in mud or lain beloater or climbed the tallest tree But there was not a stick of wood, the bog-holes were little puddles, the strea but short heather, and bare hill bent, and the white highway

Then in a tiny bight of road, beside a heap of stones, I found the road down his hammer He looked at me with a fishy eye and yawned

'Confoond the day I ever left the herdin'!' he said, as if to the world at large 'There I was my ain maister Now I'm a slave to the Goavernment, tethered to the roadside, wi' sair een, and a back like a suckle'

He took up the hammer, struck a stone, dropped the implement with an oath, and put both hands to his ears 'Mercy on ure, about my own size buthorn spectacles

'I canna dae't,' he cried again 'The Surveyor maun just report me I'h indeed that was clear enough

'The trouble is that I'm no sober Last nicht my dochter Merran addit, and they danced till fower in the byre Me and some ither chiels sat down to the drinkin', and here I am Peety that I ever lookit on the hen it was red!'

I agreed with hiot a postcard yestreen sayin' that the new Road Surveyor would be round the day He'll come and he'll no find me, or else he'll find me fou, and either way I'm a done man I'll awa' back to my bed and say I'm no weel, but I doot that'll no help me, for they ken my kind o' no-weel-ness'

Then I had an inspiration 'Does the new Surveyor know you?' I asked

'No him He's just been a week at the job He rins about in a wee motor-cawr, and wad speir the inside oot o' a whelk'

'Where's your house?' I asked, and was directed by a wavering finger to the cottage by the stream

'Well, back to your bed,' I said, 'and sleep in peace I'll take on your job for a bit and see the Surveyor'

He stared at me blankly; then, as the notion dawned on his fuddled brain, his face broke into the vacant drunkard's smile

'You're the billy,' he cried 'It'll be easy eneucho' stanes, so you needna chap ony mair this forenoon just take the barry, and wheel eneuchthe morn My name's Alexander Turnbull, and I've been seeven year at the trade, and twenty afore that herdin' on Leithen Water My freens ca'waik i' the sicht just you speak the Surveyor fair, and ca' him Sir, and he'll be fell pleased I'll be back or mid-day' I borrowed his spectacles and filthy old hat; stripped off coat, waistcoat, and collar, and gave him them to carry home; borrowed, too, the foul stump of a clay pipe as an extra property He indicated my simple tasks, and without more ado set off at an amble bedwards Bed may have been his chief object, but I think there was also soht be safe under cover before my friends arrived on the scene

Then I set to work to dress for the part I opened the collar of ar blue-and-white check such as ploughmen wear - and revealed a neck as brown as any tinker's I rolled up ht have been a blacksot s all white fro the below the knee Then I set to work on my face With a handful of dust I made a water-mark round ht be expected to stop I rubbed a good deal of dirt also into the sunburn of my cheeks A roadman's eyes would no doubt be a little inflaet so produced a bleary effect

The sandwiches Sir Harry had given one off with my coat, but the roadman's lunch, tied up in a red handkerchief, was at reat relish several of the thick slabs of scone and cheese and drank a little of the cold tea In the handkerchief was a local paper tied with string and addressed to Mr Turnbull - obviously ain, and put the paper conspicuously beside it

My boots did not satisfythe stones I reduced theear Then I bit and scraped es were all cracked and uneven The ainst would miss no detail I broke one of the bootlaces and retied it in a clurey socks bulged over the uppers Still no sign of anything on the road The one hoan my journeys to and from the quarry a hundred yards off

I res in his day, once tellinga part was to think yourself into it You could never keep it up, he said, unless you could e to convince yourself that you were it So I shut off all other thoughts and switched theht of the little white cottage ason Leithen Water, I ly on sleep in a box-bed and a bottle of cheap whisky Still nothing appeared on that long white road

Now and then a sheep wandered off the heather to stare at me A heron flopped down to a pool in the strea no more notice ofmy loads of stone, with the heavy step of the professional Soon I grearrit I was already counting the hours till evening should put a limit to Mr Turnbull's monotonous toil Suddenly a crisp voice spoke fro up I saw a little Ford two-seater, and a round-faced young man in a bowler hat

'Are you Alexander Turnbull?' he asked 'I am the new County Road Surveyor You live at Blackhopefoot, and have charge of the section fros? Good! A fair bit of road, Turnbull, and not badly engineered A little soft about aSee you look after that GoodYou'll know ood enough for the dreaded Surveyor I went on with reards noon I was cheered by a little traffic A baker's van breasted the hill, and sold er biscuits which I stowed in encies Then a herd passed with sheep, and disturbedloudly, 'What had become o' Specky?'

'In bed wi' the colic,' I replied, and the herd passed onjust about lided past and drew up a hundred yards beyond Its three occupants descended as if to stretch their legs, and sauntered towards me