The Motor Pirate

by G. Sidney Paternoster

I spluttered. I choked. But I drank and I drank again. Never surely was champagne more grateful or more useful. My strength returned to me instantaneously. My brain cleared. My eyes saw. My hope returned. I drew a deep sigh of relief. Forrest handed me the bottle again.

"After you," I said.

He took a drink and then remarked authoritatively, "Finish the bottle."

I obeyed and, draining it, tossed it into the hedge and once more set the car in motion. If our progress had been speedy before, when we were once through Penzance, it became absolutely reckless.

My brain was dancing from the effect of the champagne, and a wild exhilaration throbbed in every artery. The pace was tremendous, and we had not left Penzance a couple of miles behind us before the fugitives came once more into view. Now for the first time I could see that we were holding our own in the race. It may have been that some bearing had become heated in the car Mannering was driving, for undoubtedly his new car was more speedy than the old, but it was clear that he could no longer leave us as he had been able to do in the earlier part of the chase. If only I could increase ever so slightly the speed of my car, I felt confident of overtaking him. I motioned to Forrest to bend towards me, and when his ear was level with my mouth, I asked him to throw everything which could be got rid of overboard, in order to lighten the car. He took my meaning at once, and away went the cushions and rugs. The difference was slight, but still there was a perceptible difference. At the pace we were now travelling the car rocked from side to side of the road, and Forrest had to brace himself stiffly against the foot-board to prevent himself being thrown out. But we were gaining foot by foot on the fugitives. I felt a thrill of delight when, on reaching the brow of a hill, I saw the white car only two hundred yards ahead, and reckoned that in a couple of minutes we should have overtaken them.

But one thing I had overlooked. I became conscious that we should soon be at the end of our journey, for suddenly I saw the sea on the horizon. I knew now where we were, knew that the end was in sight. For Mannering there could be no return, and I shouted aloud with exultation when I realized it. We drew closer to him, so close that I fancied I could see his eyes glittering through the mica plate of his mask as he turned to look at us.

A sudden horror gripped me by the throat. He surely must know as well as myself that he was near the spot where all roads ended; that we were barely a mile or two from Land's End. What if he intended to end his life and his journey together? And what if, not content with destroying himself, he were to carry with him to destruction the girl who rode beside him on his car?

We reached within twenty yards of him, and then as if in answer to my thought, I heard him emit a screech of laughter as his car suddenly shot away from us, and in half a minute placed him at least a quarter of a mile ahead. The bitterness of that moment, as my hope died within me, I can never forget. I only continued the pursuit mechanically.

We thundered through Sennen without pause and so onward until we opened up the hotel and the stretch of green on the brow of the cliff. Then I could have shrieked with delight. The white car was standing still and Mannering had left his seat and was standing by the side. Ten seconds would have brought us to him. Five passed. He leaped again to his seat, and as he did so, the white robed figure sprang from the car to the turf. The Pirate gave a cry of baffled rage. But he had no time to waste in recovering his escaping victim, for we were within fifty yards of him. His car leaped forward and, leaving the road, tossed like a boat at sea over the uneven boulder-strewn turf. We were within five yards of him, and it was as much as we could manage to do to keep our seats.

Just in time I realized the danger into which we were being unwittingly drawn, and reversing the gear, I put on both breaks. I was in time, but only just in time, for we were on a treacherous grassy slope and in spite of the breaks our car continued to glide forward under the impulse of the velocity it had attained.