“Spedding!” said Angel, rising. “We haven’t any time to lose, Jimmy.”
Mauder accompanied them into the hall.
“One question,” said Jimmy, as he fastened the collar of his motor-coat. “Can you give us any idea of the contents of the book?”
“I can’t,” was the reply. “I have a dim recollection that much of it was purely conventional, that there were some rough drawings, and the earlier forms of the alphabet were illustrated—the sort of thing you find in encyclopædias or in the back pages of teachers’ Bibles.”
The two men took their seats in the car as it swung round and turned its bright head-lamps toward London.
“‘I found this puzzle in a book
From which some mighty truths were took,’”
murmured Angel in his companion’s ear, and Jimmy nodded. He was at that moment utterly oblivious and careless of the fortune that awaited them in the great safe at Lombard Street. His mind was filled with anxiety concerning the girl who unconsciously held the book which might to-morrow make her an heiress. Spedding had moved promptly, and he would be aided, he did not doubt, by Connor and the ruffians of the “Borough Lot.” If the book was still in the girl’s possession they would have it, and they would make their attempt at once.
His mind was full of dark forebodings, and although the car bounded through the night at full speed, and the rain which had commenced to fall again cut his face, and the momentum of the powerful machine took his breath away, it went all too slowly for his mood.
One incident relieved the monotony of the journey. As the car flew round a corner in an exceptionally narrow lane it almost crashed into another car, which, driven at breakneck speed, was coming in the opposite direction. A fleeting exchange of curses between the chauffeurs, and the cars passed.