CHAPTER XIX
A HOT SCENT
I ran on through the night, but I could not make any great progress. I was now involved in a maze of Essex bye-roads, totally unknown to me, and every few minutes I was compelled to dismount, and search for the tracks. I never lost them, however, until I came once more to a high-road. The curve of the tyre marks at the junction of the road gave me the direction I needed, and, letting my car go, in four or five minutes I found myself running into the electric-lighted streets of a town. The place was deserted, but eventually I found a policeman, and of him I inquired whether anything had been seen or heard of the Pirate. There was no need for me to describe the appearance of the pirate car. It was as well-known throughout the land, as the Lord Mayor's coach, but he had seen nothing of it, and was quite positive that it had not passed through the town. An ordinary car had passed about half an hour before my arrival, and though the constable's description of the car was not very lucid, it was sufficiently near the mark to make me think of Mannering.
"I fancy the man you describe is a friend of mine," I said. "Which direction did he take?"
"He went straight along the Colchester road," was the astonishing reply.
"The Colchester road?" I inquired. "What town is this, then?"
"This is Chelmsford, sir," he answered, with a surprise equalling my own.
I could see my unguarded question had awakened his suspicions of me, so I made haste to remark that I had not realized how quickly I had travelled, adding that I might have known there was no other town of the size thereabouts.
"I am afraid," I added, "that if you had met me outside the borough you would have had a case for the Bench in the morning."