“They’d better save their breath,” Michael commented critically to himself. “That long rise’ll take it out of a good many of them.”
He settled down to his favourite stride; and very soon began to overtake the laggards at the tail of the chase. In front of him he saw a Cardinal Richelieu with kilted cassock; but the Cardinal found his costume too much for him and pulled out of the race as Michael passed him. Shortly after, Michael drew level with an early nineteenth-century dandy and for a few seconds they raced neck and neck. The dandy, however, was unable to stay the pace.
“It’s these damned Johnny Walker boots,” he gasped, as he fell behind.
Michael, running comfortably, began to take a faint amusement in the misfortunes of his colleagues. He could not help smiling as he passed a Minotaur, sitting beside the track and making furious efforts to disentangle himself from his pasteboard bull’s head which seemed to have become clamped in position. But as he found two more of the hunters by the wayside, a fresh point of view occurred to him.
“If they’re going to drop out at this rate, there won’t be many of us left at the finish to tackle the beggar; and he’s armed. We’ll need all the men we can scrape up, if we’re to make sure of him.”
Glancing ahead again, he was relieved to see that he had gained a fair amount of ground on the fugitive; and now he began to pass runner after runner, as the rising slope told on the weaker pursuers. He reached the group at the head of the chase just as the escaping burglar dashed into the shadow of the woods a hundred yards in advance.
“He’ll dodge us now, if he can,” Michael warned his companions, who evidently were unacquainted with the ground. “Keep your eyes on him at any cost.”
But as they entered the pine arcades, Michael found that he was mistaken. The quarry maintained his lead; but he made no effort to leave the beaten track. Ahead of them they could see his white-clad figure dappled with light and darkness as he sped up the broad pathway.
Suddenly, Michael remembered what lay beyond the pine-wood. Without raising his voice, for fear the runner in front should hear him, he explained the situation.
“He doesn’t know what he’s running into. There’s a big quarry up there, with barbed wire fences on each side. If we can keep him straight for it, we’ll have him pinned.”