Forrest paused to light another cigarette, and after a couple of puffs he resumed—
"But the most startling thing was to come. Holding me tightly he leaned over towards me and said, 'Not this time, Inspector Forrest. You may think you have the Motor Pirate, but I can assure you that you were never more mistaken in your life.' Astonishment is not the name for my feelings at hearing him address me by my name. I had caught a glimpse of him before I dropped the lamp, but he was so swathed in his leather coat and disguised by his mask, that I should never be able to identify him. But I seemed to recognize something familiar in the intonation of his voice, yet even that was so muffled that I cannot be certain I have ever heard it before. However, I did not allow my astonishment to prevent me taking action. I threw myself suddenly backwards, hoping the weight of my body would upset his balance and drag him from his car to the ground, where we should have been on more equal terms. The jerk moved him about as much as if he had been built into his car. 'No, you don't, Inspector,' he said, with an infernal chuckle; and, so saying, he leaned over and, catching me by the coat, lifted me off my feet and swung me up on to the car before him. I'm not a light weight, as you can guess—I turn the scale at something nearer twelve stone than eleven—but he handled me as if I were a baby. I struggled of course, but my right arm was powerless, and he could master me with ease."
"I suppose it was during the struggle that you lost the two buttons from your overcoat which you left behind you?" I asked.
"Most likely," he replied, "though I knew nothing of them. Really his strength seemed diabolic. There was something else about him which to my mind scarcely seemed natural. At all my struggles he continued to laugh, but there was no merriment in his laughter, it was merely an even guttural cachinnation, the laugh of a fiend at the aimless struggles of a lost soul. It seemed to give him immense pleasure to see me wriggling on the smooth curved metal plate which formed the front of his car. I grew tired at last and lay still, hoping for a chance to better my position, for I came to the conclusion that in a mere trial of strength he was immeasurably my superior.
"When he saw my resistance had ceased, he spoke again. 'I feel inclined to take you for a ride with me, Inspector,' he said. 'I can assure you that you will find the experience a thrilling one. It is given to few men to travel with the Motor Pirate. The pace alone should prove exhilarating, to say nothing of the companionship and—what awaits you at the termination of the entertainment.' He chuckled again as he concluded, and I felt a cold thrill in the region of my spine.
"I made no reply. What would have been the use? But I do wish my right arm had been of some use, for I think in my anger I might have stood some chance of turning the tables on him. I quietly tried to rub the feeling back into it, but he did not afford me a chance of doing so for long. He produced a length of rope from somewhere or other, and, before I gathered what he was doing, he had twisted it round me and bound my arms tightly to my sides. I was absolutely powerless, and I gnashed my teeth with rage at the helpless state in which I found myself. There was I, a detective inspector with a reputation at the Yard second to none, trussed like a fowl, and lying on the slippery surface of the Pirate car I had come out to capture."
"Not exactly a pleasant position," I remarked, as Forrest paused to moisten his throat with the whisky-and-soda at his elbow.
"No; but the worst was yet to come. He had no sooner secured my arms than he drew another piece of cord through the band, and fastened it somewhere or other. 'Now, if ever you pray, Inspector,' he remarked, with some more of his beastly merriment, 'pray that this rope doesn't break; for if it should happen to do so at the pace we shall be travelling, you will go to hell even sooner than I intend you to do.'
"With that he set his car in motion, and, judging by the way the wind stung me, the pace was something terrific. At first I attempted to pay some attention to the direction we took. But I soon gave up the idea. My position on the car was not one from which I could observe anything with any degree of comfort. With my arms bound, I sprawled out upon the smooth, curved bonnet of the confounded car, only held on by a cord which I expected to break and send me flying into the next world every time we touched a stone, or crossed a rut. My heart was in my mouth for the next hour or so, but afterwards I think I grew careless or callous. He had pulled the cord round my arms pretty tightly; that numbed me all over, and the exposure to the air did the rest. I fell into a dreamy condition. I only know that never for a moment were we still. There was always the drone of the wheels in my ears, and whenever I made a struggle and opened my eyes, all I could see was the blacker streak in the blackness caused by the hedges flying past. Heaven only knows how far and where we went. It seemed an eternity until it ended. But by then I was very near unconsciousness. I have a sort of impression the car did stop. I fancy that I saw the Pirate's mask bent closely over me while he examined me, that I heard him say, 'I don't think, Mr. Inspector, your attentions will trouble me much more.' I do remember distinctly being lifted in his powerful hands. I felt him swing me once, twice, thrice; then I felt myself flying in the air, and the next moment my senses came back to me with a rush, for I plumped into several feet of water."
"Well?" I ejaculated, as Forrest paused to light another cigarette. I was so interested that I grudged him a moment's delay before completing the story.