There was now no drone of the engine but they could hear the sough of the air through the wires, and for a moment it seemed as if it were dropping directly on top of them. The next instant it passed so near that they almost felt its draught upon their faces. Then it taxied along the ground, coming to a halt in the glow of the still burning head-lights of the big car.
Instinctively, they hurried towards it, and until they were within twenty yards they did not realize that Whitby’s confederate had got there first and was talking excitedly to the pilot.
‘Good God!’ said Martin suddenly stopping dead in his tracks. The same thought struck the others at precisely the same instant.
Through the waves of mingled anger and amazement which overwhelmed them, Whitby’s precise little voice came clearly.
‘I observe that he carries a machine-gun,’ he remarked. ‘That’s what I like about these Germans – so efficient. In view of what my excitable colleague has probably said to the pilot, I really don’t think I should come any nearer. Perhaps you would turn off our head-lights when you go back, they have served their purpose. Take the car too if you like.’
He paused and beamed on them.
‘Good-bye,’ he said. ‘I suppose it would annoy you if I thanked you for coming to see me off? Don’t do that,’ he added sharply, as Martin’s hand shot to his side pocket. ‘Please don’t do that,’ he repeated more earnestly. ‘For my friends would most certainly kill you without the least compunction, and I don’t want that. Believe me, my dear young people, whatever your theories may be, I am no murderer. I am leaving the country in this melodramatic fashion because it obviates the inconveniences which might arise if I showed my passport here just at present. Don’t come any nearer. Good-bye, gentlemen.’
As they watched him go, Martin’s hand again stole to his pocket.
Abbershaw touched his arm.
‘Don’t be a fool, old man,’ he said. ‘If he’s done one murder, don’t encourage him to do another, and if he hasn’t, why help him to?’