Several more questions he asked, at which I got more and more rattled.
Then abruptly he said: “There is something wrong here. For some unaccountable reason I suspected you from the first, and evidently my suspicions were correct. Your passport is invalid. It is dated three days ago and purports to be signed by No. 340-7-11. Yet he ceased to be a member of the Imperial Council over a sangth ago. Then this is not the kerkool to which I have been accustomed as Prince Toron’s. You see, I am recently from Mooni myself. Prince Toron is assigned to the electrical, and not the agricultural, department; and, anyhow, they don’t teach about cows under the head of agriculture. Accordingly your entire story breaks down, and I shall be compelled to hold you until I can notify my superiors. You see—”
I saw all right. And I didn’t intend to permit him to finish his harangue. So while his attention was still directed upon his own good opinion of himself as a detective, I threw the car into full speed ahead, thus putting an end to the sentry’s conversation. In fact, it nearly put an end to the sentry himself. But, instead of having sense enough to run him down, I instinctively steered around him.
Of course, he immediately gave the alarm, and soon Lilla informed me that she could see the lights of a pursuing kerkool behind us on the road.
Then I began to have difficulty with the controls of the car. It started to wabble uncertainly, although it did not decrease its speed.
“Do you understand these machines?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied, “I frequently have driven one.”
“What seems to be the matter with it now?”
She thought a moment intently, and then answered: “It seems to me that the gyroscopes are slowing down. If this be so, we must come to a stop directly, or the kerkool will overturn.”
I decided to take her advice; and so, stopping the kerkool as quickly as possible, we each seized a small spotlight with which the car was equipped, and struck off into the dense woods that lined the road.