The struggle did not take long in actual time but it seemed to Vench that it did. The man was old and stout, not in any kind of physical condition, and he was handicapped by the heavy coat which he wore. Vench felt his struggles grow weaker and weaker, and at last they stopped altogether. When the cadet felt that it was safe he released his hold on the man’s throat but not on his mouth. The man lay still and Vench was satisfied that he was unconscious.
Then Vench released his hold on his mouth and looked around him. The snow was badly kicked up where they had struggled, but there were no other signs. He stripped the big fur coat and the cap from the man’s person and then pulled off his belt. With this he secured the driver’s hands behind his back and then considered.
“I can’t leave him here to freeze in the bushes,” Vench reflected. “But where will I put him?” Then it flashed over him that there was a tool house not far away, the door of which was always unlocked, and he determined to take the man there. But when he tried to lift him he found it a task beyond his strength.
“Nothing left but to drag him,” decided the cadet, and he took the man by the feet and started. Finding this inconvenient he placed his hands beneath the man’s shoulders and dragged him through the thicket and over the campus to the tool house. The door was open and he tumbled the man in.
The driver had regained consciousness but contented himself with groaning. Knowing that if his hands were left tied they might become frost bitten Vench took off the belt and went out, dropping a wooden bar across the holders as he did so. He knew that the man might work his way out, but it would take him several hours to do so.
Then Vench sped back to the car before Clanhammer Hall. No one had come out yet and his way was clear. He put on the fur coat and the cap, slumped down in them and hung over the wheel, waiting for the next move in the game that he had decided to play.
20. The Major Makes a Move
When Don and the colonel swung around in consternation at the sound of the door opening they faced Major Tireson and the old man. There was a look of triumph on the face of the major, and the old man, standing just back of him with a candle in his hand had a slight smile on his otherwise expressionless face.
“So!” cried the major, as they jumped to their feet. “You two are together, it seems.”
The colonel recovered his presence of mind instantly. “Why, yes, we do seem to be together,” he remarked.