The Motor Pirate

by G. Sidney Paternoster

  CHAPTER XXII

  GONE AWAY

  "DON'T stir an inch until I give the signal," whispered Forrest in myear, as soon as he saw I was fully awake. He was perfectly calm, and heclosed the door in order to conceal us from the sight of any oneentering the workshop.

  The car pulled up outside. We heard the grate of the key in the lock,and the door creak on its hinges, as it swung open. There was a secondgrating noise, and I judged that the door of the inner yard had beenopened by whoever had entered. There followed a few more pants from themotor, as it passed through the coach-house into the yard, and theneverything was silent. The outer door shutting with a snap apprized usthat the crucial moment was at hand, and my heart began to thump as Iheard footsteps approaching. Forrest pointed to a vacant hook over myhead, and I recognized why he had selected the harness-room for ourhiding-place. The footsteps came slowly nearer, then stopped, and a longlow laugh came from the lips of the unseen man. I thought we must havebeen discovered in our hiding-place and glanced at Forrest forinstructions. He never moved a muscle. He stood poised like a greyhoundabout to be slipped from the leash.

  The footsteps approached again. The door knob rattled as a hand was laidupon it. The door flew open. Forrest darted forward.

  I caught one glimpse of Mannering's face, for it was indeed he, and Isaw it become suddenly livid. It was not the pallor of fear. His eyesflashed. He had doffed his coat and was holding it in one hand, andquick as was Forrest's spring, he was equally swift to meet it. Hisother hand passed swift as lightning from the door handle, and catchingthe edge of the coat, spread the garment in front of him. Forrest,missing his grip, plunged heavily into the wide folds of the garment.Mannering's arms closed as a vice. The door swinging back hadmomentarily blocked my passage. I thrust it open, and had taken one stepforward to Forrest's assistance, when Mannering with a herculean effort,swung the detective from his feet, and hurled him full at me. It was amagnificent effort, and I went down with a crash amongst the remains ofthe lunch with Forrest on the top of me. The whole incident had notlasted twenty seconds, and before either of us could regain our feet,the door was slammed and locked.

  Forrest was the first to regain his feet, and he rushed at the doorfuriously. We were trapped. The door was a strong one of oak, and Iremembered that it fastened by a couple of bolts on the other side. Thedetective worried the door like a bear at the bars of his cage, but hecould not move it. He gnashed his teeth, and he was white with rage.From the other side we could hear the sound of heavy objects beingmoved, and we guessed that our enemy was piling the most massivearticles his workshop contained against the door to make it more secure.

  "D----n you, Sutgrove!" shouted the detective. "Don't stop to think, orwe shall lose our man after all. Come, both together."

  I saw his intention, and I could understand and forgive his curse in theexcitement of the moment. Together we hurled ourselves against the door.It did not move an inch, and a long low chuckle greeted the attempt fromthe other side. We tried madly again and again, but the barrier wasimmovable.

  Then I looked round for some tool which would enable me to break downthe door itself. There were only the chairs available, and so I tore offthe leg of one of them, and, bidding Forrest stand back, I swung thepiece of wood round my head, and struck as hard as I could against oneof the lower panels of the door. The improvised club flew into half adozen fragments, but the panel had cracked. Forrest had provided himselfmeanwhile with a similar club, and directed his blows so effectivelythat the panel was driven out. I threw myself at the gap, trusting to beable to force my way through.

  What I saw filled me with rage. The wheels of the new car were moving,and right before my eyes the car disappeared into the outercoach-house. I made an unavailing attempt to struggle through theaperture, but the attempt was hopeless. It was too narrow to admit evenmy shoulders. Withdrawing, I told Forrest what I had seen.

  "I had entirely forgotten Laver," he remarked, and putting his whistleto his mouth, he blew it shrill and clear.

  Then together we renewed our attack upon the door. The sound of a shoutfrom the outside followed by a pistol shot made us work like madmen, andwithin a minute, another panel gave, and we managed to get at the boltsand draw them. The articles piled against the door toppled in alldirections, as we finally forced our way out.

  We were too late. The outer door was wide open, and just on thethreshold, was Forrest's unfortunate subordinate lying on the ground,with blood trickling down his arm. He struggled into a sitting positionas we came out, and pointed up the road in the direction of St. Albans.

  "Gone away, sir," he said.

  "Hurt?" asked Forrest, pausing as he did so.

  "Not much; smashed shoulder, I fancy," remarked the suffererphilosophically.

  "I'll send assistance," said my companion as he rushed after me into theroad, where I stood horror stricken at what met my gaze.

  Fifty yards distant, opposite the entrance gate of Colonel Maitland'shouse, the new car was standing still. It was empty. The gate was open,and even as I watched, I saw Mannering come out of the gate, bearing inhis arms the helpless figure of a girl. There was no need to guess whothe victim might be. Even before I saw him appear, I knew intuitivelywhy he had stopped. Had he not told Evie that on the third day he wouldreturn, bidding her be ready for him?

  I rushed forward towards the car, but before I had covered half thedistance which separated me from it, he was aboard with his burden and Iknew pursuit on foot to be hopeless.

  Yet, even as I saw him move away, there flashed across my brain onemeans by which I might possibly get on terms with my enemy. There wasjust one chance, and one chance only, of rescuing my darling from thePirate, and that chance depended entirely upon the question as towhether the car upon which Mannering had returned was fitted with thesame sort of motor as that on which he had departed.

  With the haste of a madman I returned to the coach-house I had justquitted. My hopes fell to zero. There was an unmistakable scent ofpetrol about the car. They rose again, however, upon a closerexamination, for I saw at once that the motor was a turbine, thoughpetrol was utilized in some way as a means of securing the necessaryheat to secure the expansion of the gas for the starting of the engine,though I could see that once started, the expanded hydrogen was, as inthe new car, ingeniously utilized to produce the necessary heat. I wasglad then that I had spent as much time as I had upon examining the carupon which the Pirate had escaped, for I was enabled to see that, ifonly a supply of the liquid hydrogen were obtainable, I should be ableto put my wild plan into execution. As it was, the tank was nearlyempty, so putting my shoulder to the car, I shoved it into the workshopwhere, unless Mannering had let it run to waste, I knew I should find asupply of the hydrogen. Thank Heaven, Mannering had forgot to empty thereceiver, and filling the tank and tightly screwing down the nuts of thecovering, I wheeled the car into the open road. There I saw Forrestleaning against the wall of the coach-house, a figure of inexpressibledejection.

  "Come and lend a hand!" I shouted.

  The light that flashed into his face, as he realized what I would be at,was extraordinary. He sprang forward at once to my assistance. Now, inmy attempts to get at the machinery of the car, I had discovered theplates with which Mannering had been wont to disguise its shape, and itoccurred to me that they performed the further purpose of diminishingthe wind resistance, so that if I wanted to get the full speed out ofthe car it would be necessary to fix them in their places. I immediatelyset to work to join up the various sections, leaving Forrest to boltthem together. We worked like niggers at the job, and it was nearlycompleted when a curious sound came down the breeze. I looked up, and tomy surprise I saw the Pirate once more approaching.

  "Look!" I shouted to Forrest in my excitement, though there was no needto warn him.

  Nearer the Pirate came; still nearer. Every moment I expected to see himpull up and surrender. But it was a mad hope. He had not the slightestintention of so obliging us. As he approached, he
suddenly increased hispace and flashed past us at full sixty miles an hour.

  Forrest fingered a revolver, but he dared not shoot for fear the bulletshould find the slender form of Evie, who we saw was huddled close tohis side. Mannering laughed as he passed us and waved his hand inderision.

  "There are a couple of masks in the coach-house," I said quietly to thedetective.

  He darted into the doorway and returned a moment later with them,thrusting at the same time a bottle into his pocket. It took us no timeto climb into the car and as, during his momentary absence, I hadsucceeded in starting the engine, we were in a position to move at once.

  For a hundred yards we travelled at the speed at which we wereaccustomed to see Mannering while using the car in the sight of men andin the light of day. Then with a word of warning to my companion, Ipulled at the change-speed lever. The effect was marvellous. The carseemed to leap forward and the hedges suddenly transformed themselvesinto long green streaks.

  A cloud of dust on the road ahead gave the direction Mannering hadtaken, so I jammed down the lever to its limit and commenced thepursuit. At any other time the idea of chasing the Pirate on one of hisown cars would have delighted me beyond measure, but my thoughts weretoo much occupied as to the fate which might await Evie if we failed toovertake her abductor to allow room for anything else.

  Exactly what speed we made I cannot tell, it must have been nearereighty than sixty miles an hour, but the smoothness of the motion waswonderful, and I felt not the slightest tremor.

  Mannering had disappeared on the Watford road, and in a few minutes weswept through the north end of the town and, directed by a boy at thecross roads, made for Rickmansworth. Forrest took charge of the horn,and kept it braying continuously. We slackened speed throughRickmansworth, for the streets were full of vehicles, and there welearned that the white car was five minutes ahead. Once clear of thestreets I let the car go again, and we tore away towards Uxbridge. Onreaching the main Oxford road once more a dust cloud in the distanceserved as a guide, and informed us that Mannering had crossed thehighway, and gone away in the direction of Slough. The going was roughfor a while, but I did not slacken pace, though the road was narrow, andto have met a cart would have meant certain destruction. The roadbroadened after a time, and I fancied we were gaining, for the dustcloud seemed nearer. We skirted Slough to the east, the guiding cloudbearing towards Dachet. Darting through that little riverside town at apace which set the police whistles blowing behind us, we came to thebridge across the Thames, and here we were informed that our quarry wasbarely a minute ahead, and running in the direction of Egham. A milefurther on, at a straight piece of road, we first sighted the fugitives,and a cry of triumph escaped my lips. It was a little premature,however. Once again the silver car turned into a bye-road so windingthat I was compelled, much against my will, to slacken speed. Then oncemore we came out upon a main road, to find our quarry not more than ahundred yards away as we swept out into the broad highway.

  And here, looking back, Mannering for the first time learned that wewere on his track. At that moment, too, commenced a race which, Iventure to think, will not soon be equalled in the history of the motorworld. At all events, I trust it will never be my lot to take part inany similar trial of speed, at least, with such issues depending uponthe result. Upon emerging from the bye-road we were a mile from Egham,and knowing the road, I asked Forrest to glance at his watch. The waywas clear before us, and three minutes and a quarter later, we flashedthrough the railway arch at Sunningdale railway-station, four miles fromthe point where the timing commenced. But fast as we had travelled,Mannering travelled faster. When we reached Bagshot we learned he washalf a minute ahead.

  We flew through the lovely pine country on the wings of the wind,through Hook, and so into Basingstoke. By this time we were covered fromhead to foot with white dust, looking more like working masons thananything else; but wherever we went, I knew Forrest had the power tomake the way easy. If he had been anybody else but a detective fromScotland Yard, we should never have got through Basingstoke, for therethe police, warned in some manner of our approach, had drawn a hugewaggon across the road, thus completely barring our progress. It wassoon drawn aside when Forrest produced his badge, and once more we flewwestwards. So through Whitchurch and Andover.

  How we succeeded in escaping accidents I cannot explain. Providenceseemed to watch over both pursuers and pursued. We were always on theverge of a collision with somebody or something. Cottages, carts,pedestrians, cyclists, seemed to be flying by in a never-endingprocession. Yet we touched nothing.

  Once past Andover the road became clearer, for instead of turningtowards Salisbury, as I expected, the Pirate chose the road throughAmesbury and Stonehenge. We swept over Salisbury Plain at a magnificentpace, but we did not catch sight of the fugitives, though now and againa glimpse of a distant dust cloud raised my hopes momentarily. AtWincanton we learned we were three minutes behind, and setting my teeth,I determined I would not slacken speed again until we overtook thefugitives or reached Exeter. The road was admirable hereabouts, and weran so steadily that, but for the hedges flying past, we might have beensitting in armchairs. After Ilminster the road became steeper, thoughit was yet too early in the year to be very rough.

  But how is it possible to describe a journey at the pace we were making?Our progress became dream-like to me. It was almost monotonous. Onecould observe so little, just an incident here and there to mark thestages in the journey. Thus I remember Honiton by the frightened screamof a cur which was swept off its feet by the rush of the air as wepassed close at his tail. Then nothing of note until we reached Exeter.

  At the cathedral city we were told the white car was only a minute inadvance. I began to wonder where the chase was going to end, forMannering was still going westward without pause. Still we followed. Outon to the Launceston road; onward, ever onward until the bare hills ofDartmoor frowned upon us, and we had to slacken slightly for the longupward grind. Fortunately the hills were free from mist, and on reachingthe summit of Whiddon Down we caught once more a glimpse of the whitecar before it disappeared in the distance. I was getting reckless, and Itook the descent at a pace which blanched even Forrest's cheek. Thenthrough a streak of white houses, which I fancied must be Okehampton.There was no need to inquire the way. At the pace both cars weretravelling there was only one road which would serve either Mannering ormyself. In fifteen minutes Launceston came into view. Then up againuntil from the top of Bodmin moor we caught fleeting glimpses of the seaon either side of us. On still without pause, through Redruth andCamborne and Hayle. Finally a sight of them at last, as we opened up St.Michael's Bay as we came to Marazion. And here I thought the chase hadcome to an end. I was mistaken.