"To Auldhaig? It's a long way. Can I give you a lift?"
"Why, you are going in exactly the opposite direction," declared the girl laughingly. "And to find you riding with an empty side-car, Ronald. Now, what does it mean?"
"I'll deal with your question," replied Tressidar, striving to gain time to find a suitable explanation to meet her previous remark. "I couldn't hire a car and I can't ride a motorbike solo, so I had to hire the side-car to keep me balanced. It's quite true that I was going in the wrong direction, but there's no reason why I shouldn't turn the affair round."
"If you are riding with a set purpose," continued Doris remorselessly, "I wouldn't think of detaining you. You evidently are making for somewhere."
"Yes, I am," admitted Tressidar boldly. "I came along here to meet you. It's no use mincing matters. Look here, what do you say to a run out as far as Tuilaburn? It's only seven miles further, and the road across the moors is simply top-hole. We'll be back at Auldhaig well before lighting-up time."
Doris assented. She was not one of those irresponsible young ladies who coyly pretend not to be able to make up their minds. She really admired the tall, bronzed naval officer who had handled the duty steamboat so magnificently in going to the aid of the doomed "Pompey." It was not without ulterior motives, which were now being realised, that she had "choked off" her rather too attentive brother.
Before the girl took her place in the car Ronald assisted her to don his oilskin coat—the same that she had worn on that memorable trip in Auldhaig Harbour. It formed an ideal protection from the biting wind.
Almost before they were aware of it, they ran into Tuilaburn. Here they had tea and talked—of many things. It was close upon lighting-up time when the return journey began.
"By Jove! the little engine does pull well," remarked Tressidar as the motor-cycle ascended the long gradual rise out of Nedderburn. "We'll be in Auldhaig before it's time to light up, you see if we won't."
The words were hardly out of his mouth when, with an ominous succession of bumps, the back tyre punctured.