Part 3 (1/2)

Two of the men I had seen before from theof the Galloway inn - one lean, sharp, and dark, the other co The third had the look of a countryman - a vet, perhaps, or a small farmer He was dressed in ill-cut knickerbockers, and the eye in his head was as bright and wary as a hen's

”Morning,' said the last 'That's a fine easy job o' yours'

I had not looked up on their approach, and nohen accosted, I slowly and painfully straightened orously, after the arded the I confronted three pairs of eyes that

'There's waur jobs and there's better,' I said sententiously 'I wad rather hae yours, sittin' a' day on your hinderlands on thae cushi+ons It's you and your muckle cawrs that wreck my roads! If we a' had oor richts, ye sud be ht-eyedbeside Turnbull's bundle

'I see you get your papers in good tiude time Seein' that that paper cam' out last Setterday I'lanced at the superscription, and laid it down again One of the others had been looking at my boots, and a word in German called the speaker's attention to them 'You've a fine taste in boots,' he said 'These were never made by a country shoemaker'

'They were not,' I said readily 'They were entleman that was here last year for the shootin' What was his naain the sleek one spoke in Gerht'

They asked one last question

'Did you see anyone pass early this ht be on foot'

I very nearly fell into the trap and told a story of a bicyclist hurrying past in the grey dawn But I had the sense to see er I pretended to consider very deeply

'I wasna up very early,' I said 'Ye see, my dochter was merrit last nicht, and we keepit it up late I opened the house door about seeven and there was naebody on the road then Since I cam' up here there has just been the baker and the Ruchill herd, besides you gentleerly and stuck in Turnbull's bundle They got into their car and were out of sight in three minutes

My heart leaped with an enor my stones It was as well, for tena hand toto chance

I finished Turnbull's bread and cheese, and pretty soon I had finished the stones The next step hat puzzledA merciful Providence had kept Mr Turnbull indoors, but if he appeared on the scene there would be trouble I had a notion that the cordon was still tight round the glen, and that if I walked in any direction I should et out Ispied on

I stayed at o down to Turnbull's cottage at nightfall and takeover the hills in the darkness But suddenly a new car came up the road, and slowed down a yard or two froht a cigarette It was a touring car, with the tonneau full of an assort chance I knew him His name was Marmaduke jopley, and he was an offence to creation He was a sort of blood stockbroker, who did his business by toadying eldest sons and rich young peers and foolish old ladies 'Marure, I understood, at balls and polo- weeks and country houses He was an adroit scandal- that had a title or a million I had a business introduction to his firh to ask reat rate, and pattered about his duchesses till the snobbery of the creature turned me sick I asked a lishmen reverenced the weaker sex

Anyhow there he was now, nattily dressed, in a fine new car, obviously on his way to visit some of his smart friends A sudden daftness took me, and in a second I had jumped into the tonneau and had hi out 'Well ht His chin dropped as he stared at asped

'My name's Hannay,' I said 'From Rhodesia, you remember'

'Good God, the murderer!' he choked 'Just so And there'll be a second murder, my dear, if you don't do as I tell you Give me that coat of yours That cap, too'

He did as bid, for he was blind with terror Over ar shi+rt I put on his sh at the top and thereby hid the deficiencies of loves to et- up The dusty roadman in a minute was transformed into one of the neatest motorists in Scotland On Mr jopley's head I clapped Turnbull's unspeakable hat, and told him to keep it there

Then with soo back the road he had co seen it before, would probably let it pass unreure was in no way like mine

'Now, ood boy Iyour car for an hour or two But if you play me any tricks, and above all if you open youryour neck SAVEZ?'

I enjoyed that evening's ride We ran eight e or two, and I could not help noticing several strange-looking folk lounging by the roadside These were the watchers ould have had arb 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 fare Presently we ca the sunset glealy reversed the car and restored to Mr jopley his belongings

'A thousand thanks,' I said 'There's ht Now be off and find the police'

As I sat on the hillside, watching the tail-light dwindle, I reflected on the various kinds of crieneral belief, I was not a murderer, but I had becohwayman with a marked taste for expensive motor-cars

CHAPTER SIX

The Adventure of the Bald Archaeologist

I spent the night on a shelf of the hillside, in the lee of a boulder where the heather grew long and soft It was a cold business, for I had neither coat nor waistcoat These were in Mr Turnbull's keeping, as was Scudder's little book, my watch and - worst of all - my pipe and tobacco pouch Only my inger biscuits in my trousers pocket

I supped off half those biscuits, and by worot so to enjoy this crazy game of hide-and-seek So far I had been miraculously lucky The milkman, the literary innkeeper, Sir Harry, the roadood fortune So to pull the thing through

My chief trouble was that I was desperately hungry When a Jew shoots himself in the City and there is an inquest, the newspapers usually report that the deceased ell-nourished' I re that they would not call -hole I lay and torturedvoid - with the ht so little of in London There were Paddock's crisp sausages and fragrant shavings of bacon, and shapely poached eggs - how often I had turned up my nose at them! There were the cutlets they did at the club, and a particular ham that stood on the cold table, for which hts hovered over all varieties of mortal edible, and finally settled on a porterhouse steak and a quart of bitter with a welsh rabbit to follow In longing hopelessly for these dainties I fell asleep I woke very cold and stiff about an hour after dawn It took me a little while to remember where I was, for I had been very weary and had slept heavily I saw first the pale blue sky through a net of heather, then a big shoulder of hill, and then my own boots placed neatly in a blaeberry bush I raised myself on my arms and looked down into the valley, and that one look setup my boots in mad haste For there were men below, not more than a quarter of a mile off, spaced out on the hillside like a fan, and beating the heather Mare

I crawled out of ained a shallow trench which slanted up the ully of a burn, by way of which I scrae From there I looked back, and saw that I was still undiscovered My pursuers were patiently quartering the hillside andbehind the skyline I ran for ed I was above the upperlen Then I showed myself, and was instantly noted by one of the flankers, who passed the word to the others I heard cries coed its direction I pretended to retreat over the skyline, but instead went back the way I had coplace Fro the pursuit strealen on a hopelessly false scent I had before le with the one I was on, and so would soon put a deep glen between me and inning to enjoy ly As I went I breakfasted on the dusty reer biscuits

I knew very little about the country, and I hadn't a notion what I was going to do I trusted to the strength of s, but I ell aware that those behind norance would be a heavy handicap I saw in front of h towards the south, but northwards breaking down into broad ridges which separated wide and shallow dales The ridge I had chosen seemed to sink after a mile or two to a ood a direction to take as any other

My stratageiven me a fair start - call it twenty len behind me before I saw the first heads of the pursuers The police had evidently called in local talent to their aid, and the aht of an to clie, while the others kept their own side of the hill I felt as if I were taking part in a schoolboy gaan to seeame Those fellows behind were heftyback I saw that only three were following direct, and I guessed that the others had fetched a circuit to cut ht very well be lens to the pocket of moor I had seen froet clear away froht ground for it If there had been cover I would have tried a bit of stalking, but on these bare slopes you could see a fly a s and the soundness of round for that, for I was not bred a ood Afrikander pony!

I put on a great spurt and got off ures appeared on the skyline behind hroad whichfield of heather sloping up to a crest which was croith an odd feather of trees In the dyke by the roadside was a gate, frorown track led over the first wave of the moor

I jumped the dyke and followed it, and after a few hundred yards - as soon as it was out of sight of the highway - the grass stopped and it became a very respectable road, which was evidently kept with soan to think of doing the saht be thatAnyhow there were trees there, and that meant cover

I did not follow the road, but the burnside which flanked it on the right, where the bracken grew deep and the high banks made a tolerable screen It ell I did so, for no sooner had I gained the hollow than, looking back, I saw the pursuit topping the ridge from which I had descended

After that I did not look back; I had no ti over the open places, and for a large part wading in the shallow streae with a row of phanto hay, and very soon had coe of a plantation of wind-blown firs Fro a few hundred yards to my left I forsook the burnside, crossed another dyke, and allance back told ht of the pursuit, which had not yet passed the first lift of the h place, cut with a scythe instead of a mower, and planted with beds of scrubby rhododendrons A brace of black-gaarden birds, rose at my approach The house before me was the ordinaryadded Attached to this as a glass veranda, and through the glass I saw the face of an elderly gentle ravel and entered the open veranda door Within was a pleasant roolass on one side, and on the other a mass of books More books showed in an inner room On the floor, instead of tables, stood cases such as you see in a museum, filled with coins and queer stone implements

There was a knee-hole desk in the middle, and seated at it, with some papers and open voluentle glasses were stuck on the end of his nose, and the top of his head was as bright and bare as a glass bottle He never moved when I entered, but raised his placid eyebrows and waited on me to speak

It was not an easy job, with about five er who I was and what I wanted, and to win his aid I did not atte about the eye of the eable, that I could not find a word I simply stared at him and stuttered

'You seem in a hurry, my friend,'he said slowly

I nodded towards theIt gave a prospect across the ures half a h the heather

'Ah, I see,' he said, and took up a pair of field-glasses through which he patiently scrutinized the figures