Part 25 (1/2)

They whirled down into the valley, over a white bridge, and saw ahead of them a number of s.h.a.ggy little ponies frisking in the roadway.

Involuntarily they slackened. ”Shoo!” said Mr. Hoopdriver, and the ponies kicked up their heels derisively. At that Mr. Hoopdriver lost his temper and charged at them, narrowly missed one, and sent them jumping the ditch into the bracken under the trees, leaving the way clear for Jessie.

Then the road rose quietly but persistently; the treadles grew heavy, and Mr. Hoopdriver's breath sounded like a saw. The tandem appeared, making frightful exertions, at the foot, while the chase was still climbing. Then, thank Heaven! a crest and a stretch of up and down road, whose only disadvantage was its pitiless exposure to the afternoon sun.

The tandem apparently dismounted at the hill, and did not appear against the hot blue sky until they were already near some trees and a good mile away.

”We're gaining,” said Mr. Hoopdriver, with a little Niagara of perspiration dropping from brow to cheek. ”That hill--”

But that was their only gleam of success. They were both nearly spent.

Hoopdriver, indeed, was quite spent, and only a feeling of shame prolonged the liquidation of his bankrupt physique. From that point the tandem grained upon them steadily. At the Rufus Stone, it was scarcely a hundred yards behind. Then one desperate spurt, and they found themselves upon a steady downhill stretch among thick pine woods.

Downhill nothing can beat a highly geared tandem bicycle. Automatically Mr. Hoopdriver put up his feet, and Jessie slackened her pace. In another moment they heard the swish of the fat pneumatics behind them, and the tandem pa.s.sed Hoopdriver and drew alongside Jessie. Hoopdriver felt a mad impulse to collide with this abominable machine as it pa.s.sed him. His only consolation was to notice that its riders, riding violently, were quite as dishevelled as himself and smothered in sandy white dust.

Abruptly Jessie stopped and dismounted, and the tandem riders shot panting past them downhill. ”Brake,” said Dangle, who was riding behind, and stood up on the pedals. For a moment the velocity of the thing increased, and then they saw the dust fly from the brake, as it came down on the front tire. Dangle's right leg floundered in the air as he came off in the road. The tandem wobbled. ”Hold it!” cried Phipps over his shoulder, going on downhill. ”I can't get off if you don't hold it.”

He put on the brake until the machine stopped almost dead, and then feeling unstable began to pedal again. Dangle shouted after him. ”Put out your foot, man,” said Dangle.

In this way the tandem riders were carried a good hundred yards or more beyond their quarry. Then Phipps realized his possibilities, slacked up with the brake, and let the thing go over sideways, dropping on to his right foot. With his left leg still over the saddle, and still holding the handles, he looked over his shoulder and began addressing uncomplimentary remarks to Dangle. ”You only think of yourself,” said Phipps, with a florid face.

”They have forgotten us,” said Jessie, turning her machine.

”There was a road at the top of the hill--to Lyndhurst,” said Hoopdriver, following her example.

”It's no good. There's the money. We must give it up. But let us go back to that hotel at Rufus Stone. I don't see why we should be led captive.”

So to the consternation of the tandem riders, Jessie and her companion mounted and rode quietly back up the hill again. As they dismounted at the hotel entrance, the tandem overtook them, and immediately afterwards the dogcart came into view in pursuit. Dangle jumped off.

”Miss Milton, I believe,” said Dangle, panting and raising a damp cap from his wet and matted hair.

”I SAY,” said Phipps, receding involuntarily. ”Don't go doing it again, Dangle. HELP a chap.”

”One minute,” said Dangle, and ran after his colleague.

Jessie leant her machine against the wall, and went into the hotel entrance. Hoopdriver remained in the hotel entrance, limp but defiant.

x.x.xVIII. AT THE RUFUS STONE

He folded his arms as Dangle and Phipps returned towards him. Phipps was abashed by his inability to cope with the tandem, which he was now wheeling, but Dangle was inclined to be quarrelsome. ”Miss Milton?” he said briefly.

Mr. Hoopdriver bowed over his folded arms.

”Miss Milton within?” said Dangle.

”AND not to be disturved,” said Mr. Hoopdriver.

”You are a scoundrel, sir,” said Mr. Dangle.

”Et your service,” said Mr. Hoopdriver. ”She awaits 'er stepmother, sir.”

Mr. Dangle hesitated. ”She will be here immediately,” he said. ”Here is her friend, Miss Mergle.”