Part 14 (2/2)

Involuntarily, without realizing what he did, Mr Heatherblooone, but he soon stopped What madness!--to attempt to catch a sixty-horse-powerent reaction swept over him The woman had passed within fifty feet of where he had lain, head near the earth, reat re for him to do now but to reconcile himself to the irreconcilable, to stay here, while every desire urged him to follow her, to learn why this woman was in the car and ith her Naturally, he had expected she would be on the yacht now steama confronted him

Mr Heatherbloom continued to stand in the center of the road His head whirled; he panted hard, out of breath from his recent dash A loud honk! honk! fro unexpectedly up behind, caused him to leap aside just in ti an i his aredark--they did not heed them Soon the second leaether around a bend of the road

He looked back; no other vehicle of any description was in sight now

But it profited nothing to continue passive, immovable He had to act, to walk on, no matter holy; his face, at least, was set in the direction the wo it took hihfare he could not tell, but at length there, he caain to an abrupt stop Some distance ahead in the road appeared a , or broken down

Which car was it? The one containing the woman, or the other that ca to the shadows, alive once more to the need of caution His heart pounded hard; he could see a forht of the lamp enabled him now to make out the other occupants--three nantly, irrefutably evident as he drew nearer He could see plainly the e but was not yet able to distinguish what they said These were the people whose attention he had tried to attract back there in the road His purpose then, occurring to hily now He would ask their aid; circurace He had had a good deal of experience with cars of divers kinds and makes at different tiers his fairly expert services? He felt sure he could soon learn, and repair, rong with themade himself useful, he could then intimate that a ”lift” down the road would be acceptable And he would probably get it

But he did not carry out his intention So he heard as he came closer to them caused hiainst the car, of rather a cheap type, ords that had for hinificance These men were after some one, and that the some one was none other than himself, Mr

Heatherbloom soon became fully convinced Fate had been kinder to him than he knehen he had endeavored, and failed, to win their notice He crouched back now against a rail fence; their low disgruntled tones were still borne to him For some moments they continued to work over the hts

”If this goes on et away froru an escaped criminal in a dozen different localities at the same time”

Brownville! The listener soon divined, from a sentence dropped here and there, that the place was a little fishi+ng village a short distance down the coast He surmised, also, that they had by this tioing vessels were concerned, and were reaching out to prevent a possible exit fro froitive and thus enable hiency the authorities were now endeavoring to avert; that they also had so to their present destination and inciting them to make haste thither, was evident from the skeptical remark Mr Heatherbloom had overheard

A series of explosions, as sudden as spashts ”Hurray!” said one ”We're off!”

And they were, quickly Mr Heatherbloo in the shadow until they had all sprung into the car and the machine had fairly started, he then darted forward, seized a strap and clinging as best he ned for a trunk One desire only, in resorting to this expedient, et in touch as soon as possible, if possible, with the other car This ested, it is true, a dubious way to that end but it was the best that offered

He did not see the incongruity of his position, of being a passenger, though secretly and surreptitiously, of the car containing those e hi their coht have s of the coriasolene permeated his nostrils until he was nearly suffocated by it and all the dust, stirred by their flight, swirled up on hi

Fortunately the machine had a monopoly on noises, and any sound from him would have passed unnoticed He had ridden the ”bued in kindred uncomfortable methods of free transportation in the course of his recent career, but he had never experienced anything quite so little to be desired as this

The driver had begun to speed; as if to ine to its liotiated the steep places with jumps and slid down on the other side with breakneck velocity The dust thickened about Mr

Heatherbloom's head so that he could scarcely see His arms ached and every bump nearly tore him loose He wound the strap around his wrist and strove to ensconce hih for hie all the tie, too, was sharp and dug into hiht of bodily discoress and the difficulty ofhis position His only fear was that he would be coht not be equal to the dean to count the seconds The faster they went, the better was his purpose served; he strove to find encourageht The other car could ht stop voluntarily soht happen to arrest its progress The race did not always belong to the swift He endeavored to formulate soe to overtake the wo Sufficient unto the moment were the problems thereof; he could but strive in the present He dispelled the fear that he could not hold on er, and filled himself with new deterer bump than any they had yet encountered jerked hied to collect himself and his senses and sit up uncertainly in the road, the car was far away The snap of exploding gasolene grew faint--fainter--then ceased altogether

CHAPTER XIII

IN THE NIGHT

A orn figure, so the deserted road, where it ran like a winding ribbon over the top of a great bluff

A sea wind, corass and rustled in the bushes The moon had escaped from behind dark clouds in a stormy sky and threw its rays far and wide They imparted a frosty sheen to the wavy surface between road and sea and brightened the thoroughfare, which, lengthening tortuously, disappeared beneath in a tangle of forest or underbrush

Mr Heatherbloorass In the latter direction, afar, a strip of ocean lay like an argent strea between the top of the bank and the horizon Toward that illusory river he, leaving the ed fashi+on It ht avail hie of the bluff he would be afforded a view of the surrounding country and the topography of the coast