"They must have escaped by the front while we approached from the rear," he said.
"My plan was sound. It would have succeeded if they had waited," said the maire. "And we gave them no warning: it is incomprehensible."
Meanwhile Harry, Ginger, and the gendarmes were scanning the neighbourhood, hastening to various points of vantage. Suddenly Ginger gave a shout. Far to the right, along the road by which the motor lorry had been driven, three cyclists were pedalling at full speed away from the farm. The rearmost was a big man, like the shepherd whom the party had passed on the hill. As soon as Harry saw them, he squared his elbows and ran towards the motor-car, nearly a mile away, shouting to Ginger to inform the others. By the time he drove back in the car, the maire had decided on pursuit, and was making calculations of speed. In a few moments the car was flashing along the road. But the cyclists had had eight or nine minutes' start. There was no sign of them. They had evidently quitted the road and made off by one or other of the by-paths on each side, along which, even had their tracks been discovered, the car could not follow them.
"We're done, all through him!" growled Ginger, in high indignation, with a jerk of his head towards the maire.
That little man was explaining to Kenneth that the soundest principles sometimes fail in practice through unforeseen contingencies.
"But they will not dare to return to the farm house," he said, "so that we have accomplished something."
They returned to the village. Kenneth gave the colonel a faithful report of the expedition. Colonel Appleton let out a hot word or two.
"Next time we have an arrest to make we'll do it first and consult the police afterwards," he said.
CHAPTER XVIII
USES OF A TRANSPORT LORRY