“This is no accident,” he said, as he stood, livid with rage, on the bank, when he had scrambled through the hedge and had joined the other two. “The back tires were perfectly sound when I left town this afternoon. They’ve been tampered with by those fellows at the Priory.”
To Gerard this fresh accusation seemed far-fetched and absurd for the first moment; but when the chauffeur joined his assurances to those of his master, that the tires had been in perfect order, and moreover that he had seen one of the gentlemen examining the car, and when, upon inquiry, it turned out that the gentleman in question was Denver Van Santen, even Gerard began to think there might have been some foul play.
After a short discussion it was decided that the chauffeur should remain with the car, and that the two gentlemen should walk on to the nearest town, which was some two miles away, and make arrangements both for the digging out of the car and for continuing their journey by rail.
As they walked along, for the most part in silence, along the road, which was shaded by a row of trees on one side, Gerard fancied he heard footsteps on the other side of the hedge. In the state of nervous excitement and suspicion into which he and his companion had both been thrown by the occurrences of the evening, this incident seemed strange to Gerard, who imparted his belief that they were being shadowed to Sir William. Keeping his voice low he suggested that they should make a dash for the hedge together at the point where he thought he had heard the footsteps last.
The other agreeing, the two young men made a rush for the hedge, climbed up the bank with rapid steps, and scrambled through the briars just in time to see a figure disappearing into a plantation near at hand. At the suggestion of the baronet, they went in pursuit, and got so close to the quarry that a few more strides would have brought them up to him, when suddenly he made a plunge forward, and disappeared from their sight among the trees of the little wood.
Sir William would have made another dash to secure him, but Gerard held him back.
“Take care!” he whispered. “Did you see what he had in his hand?”
Sir William drew back with a low cry.
“No,” he whispered back, “but I saw who he was!”
The two men exchanged looks, and then, with one accord, they dropped the pursuit and regained the road as quickly as possible.