The sky was overcast with clouds, and so far the project was favoured. Hazardous as was the affair, my resolution was speedily made and fortified. Leaving the shop I sallied out for a stroll and passed the remaining interval as best I could. Then I called for a hansom, and, leaping in, ordered the driver to take me to the Marble Arch. He demurred at first, saying the journey was too much for his horse at that time of night, but his scruples were silenced by the offer of a half-sovereign for his pains. The mute objections of his steed were quashed with a sharp cut of the whip, and I was whirled swiftly on to an adventure which was to beggar the wildest creations of romance.
At the Marble Arch I dismissed the cab and walked briskly along the Hyde Park side in the direction of Notting Hill. I had gone some few hundred yards when a hansom sped by me rapidly, and a well-known face within it flashed on my vision like a meteor. It was Burnett, of all persons! Shouting and waving my stick I rushed wildly in chase of the vehicle, and, by dint of desperate efforts, succeeded at last in stopping it. As I approached the window, the trap flew up. “Drive on, man, drive on, never mind,” growled a hoarse voice, and I heard the click of a revolver. “Here I am,” I said, getting on the step and rapping the window just as the man was about to whip up. Burnett stared. “What, you here!” he said, flinging apart the leaves. “Come in quick. I don’t know who may be behind.” I mounted in a trice, and the cab flew on faster than ever.
“Look here,” I said, breathlessly, “I have come to warn you. The police are on your track.”
“I know it, my boy,” he rejoined, “but I think they have some way to run yet. No fear. I leave London in an hour.”
What was the man talking of—was he raving, or boasting, or what?
“Hi, stop!” We got out, and the cab rolled away complacently.
“Now over the palings,” cried Burnett. “You will see Hartmann?”
“Yes, for an instant.” The demon of curiosity was urgent, and the coast seemed clear.
“All right. Come, sharp.”
It was no easy task for me, tired as I was, but with the help of my companion I got through it somehow.