“But great Scott,” I cried, “what did you do? Blow up the road?”
“Exactly.”
“But people will find the hole in the road and investigate? And they will find the wrecked car and the people in it?”
“Oh, no!” Ivanovitch shook his head. “They will find neither one nor the other, my friend. There is a very capable gang of men back there where that explosion took place. In an hour they will have the occupants of the car in a safe place, the car itself out of the way and the road mended—for it is only a dirt road, you know.”
He took out his cigarette case, offered me a cigarette, and when I refused it, took one himself and lit it with a perfectly steady hand. “People who interfere with us,” he remarked, blowing a cloud of smoke into the air, “do so at their peril, my friend.”
“I agree with you perfectly,” I laughed. “Why, I had no idea such things happened in this day and age.” I paused. “But I hope those people who were following us did not have any other cards up their sleeves!”
The Russian’s head came round with a jerk and he stared at me for a long moment before he answered. “What other cards could they have?” he asked at last, and I did not like the silky tone of his voice at all.
“I’m blessed if I know,” I laughed. “But that was pretty close to murder back there, and the sensation of aiding and abetting a murder is a new one to me.” I caught his eye. “I imagine it takes a while to get used to it, eh?”
I saw the angry veins swelling on the man’s forehead, and for a moment I regretted taunting him. I had plenty of enemies as it was. But his voice was even enough when he answered. “I don’t suppose he was hurt much,” he said, “and he should have been minding his own business instead of following us.”
His use of the singular in speaking of the occupant of the wrecked car took my breath away for a moment. Either it was a queer coincidence or the man was uncanny. I tried to pull myself together and ask him a question about how the road had been blown up, but before I could do so, the driver blew four short blasts on his Klaxon and the car began to slow up. Ivanovitch turned on me.