FREE WHEEL
Romaña gasped when Tim declared his intention.
"It is madness," he said. "Your father charged me to have care of you. I must forbid it."
"I don't care what you say. I am going to get my bike. Do you know that it cost £60 in London? Besides, I am not going to let the Prefect's fellows have it."
"But consider," said Romaña anxiously. "I don't deny you may steal in and get it; they are keeping very poor watch; but what then? You would have to bring it out----"
"I'd manage that."
"And then how get it to our camp? The track is very difficult, for miles too rough for you to ride. There are sure to be sentries at the eastern entrance; and as for the gully by which we came, you know how hard our task was in daylight: we could not possibly carry the machine down in the darkness."
"All that's perfectly true, but I am not going to leave it with these rascals, so we've just got to think it out."
He had to admit that the gully and the western track, by which they had just come, were impossible. The only other route was the path which he had travelled when first brought by his captors to the camp, and when he had returned home after being ransomed. The entrance, as Romaña had said, would undoubtedly be guarded; and judging by the position of the outposts whom they had passed on the way up, there would be a corresponding picket on the path below.
The path itself was difficult enough. For more than a quarter of a mile from the camp it was a steep descent. Then for about two miles it dropped more gradually, becoming from that point onward a sort of switchback with a generally downward trend until it reached the level not far from Durand's house. Having twice travelled along the path, Tim knew it well enough to feel sure that he could ride along it even in the darkness without much risk. The difficulty was threefold: to secure the bicycle unnoticed; to pass the sentry at the entrance; and to evade the picket at the foot of the hill. Romaña, who knew the weaknesses of his countrymen, admitted that the sentry in all probability would be asleep; but the members of the picket would certainly be awake: among two or three there would be conversation.