dy. Now with my back to the sea and keeping a yard or
two away from this wretched track, but with its white sand to guide me,
I pushed my motor-cycle laboriously over the rough turf for what seemed
the better part of half an hour. In reality I suppose it was under ten
minutes, but with the night passing and that long ride before me, I
never want a more patience-testing job. And then suddenly the white
sand ceased. I stepped across to see what was the matter, and found
myself on a hard highroad. It was a branch of the main road that led
towards the shore, and for the moment I had quite forgotten its
existence. I could have shouted for joy.

"Now," I said to myself, "I'm off!"

And off I went, phut-phut-phutting through the cool night air, with a
heart extraordinarily lightened. That little bit of trouble at the
start had made the rest of the whole wild enterprise seem quite simple
now that it was safely over.

I reached the end of this branch, swung round to the right into the
highroad proper and buzzed along like a tornado. The sea by this time
had vanished, but I saw the glimmer of a loch on my left, and close at
hand low walls and dim vistas of cultivated fields. A dark low
building whizzed by, and then a gaunt eerie-looking standing stone, and
then came a dip and beyond it a little rise in the ground. As I took
this rise there suddenly came upon me a terrible sinking of the heart.
Phut-phut! went my cycle, loudly and emphatically, and then came a
horrible pause. Phut! once more; then two or three feeble explosions,
and then silence. My way stopped; I threw over my leg and landed on
the road.

"What the devil!" I muttered.

I had cleaned the thing, oiled it, seen that everything was in order;
what in heaven's name could be the matter? And then with a dreadful
sensation I remembered that wave of salt water.

II.

NIGHT IN THE RUINED HOUSE.

You may smile to think of a sailor being dismayed by a splash of salt
water; but not if you are a motor-cyclist! Several very diabolical
consequences may ensue.

In the middle of that empty road, in that alien land, under the hostile
stars, I took my electric torch and endeavoured to discover what was
the matter. From the moment I remembered the probable salt, wet cause
of my mishap I had a pretty hopeless feeling. At the end of ten
minutes I felt not merely quite hopeless, but utterly helpless.
Helpless as a child before a charging elephant, hopel