he said to himself.

They had a fine drive up Queen Victoria Street before they plunged into
the whirlpool of traffic at the Bank. They were slowly making their way
across when the driver, spying an opening in another stream, abruptly
wheeled round for Cornhill, and presently they were off again at top
speed.

"Thrown them off?" asked Mr Bunker.

"Tried to, sir, but they were too sharp and got clear away too."

Mr Bunker saw that it was going to be a stern chase, and laughed again. In
order that he might not show ostensibly that he was running away, he
resisted the temptation of having another peep through the back, and
resigned himself to the chances of the chase.

Through and through the lanes and byways of the city they drove, and after
each double the answer from the box was always the same. The cab behind
could not be shaken off.

"Work your way round to Holborn and try a run west," Mr Bunker suggested.

So after a little they struck Newgate Street, and presently their steed
stretched himself again in Holborn Viaduct.

"Gaining now, cabby?"

"A little, sir, I think."

Mr Bunker sat placidly till they were well along Holborn before he
inquired again.

"Can't get rid of 'im no 'ow. Afride it ain't much good, sir."

Mr Bunker passed up five shillings more.

"Keep your tail up. You'll do it yet," he exhorted. "Try a turn north; you
may bother him among the squares."

So they doubled north, and as the evening closed in their wearied horse
was lashed through a maze of monotonous streets and tarnished Bloomsbury
Squares. And still the other cab stuck to their trail. But when they
emerged on the Euston Road, Mr Bunker was as cheerful as ever.

"They can't last much longer," he said to his driver. "Turn up Regent's
Park way."

A little later he put the usual question and got the same unvarying
answer.

The horse was evidently beginning to fail, and he saw that this
chariot-race must soon come to an end. The street-lamps and the shop
windows were all lit up by this time, and the dusk was pretty thick. It
seemed to him that he might venture to try his luck on foot, and he began
to look out for an opening where a cab could not follow.

They were flogging along a noisy stone-paved road where there was little
other traffic; on one side stood an unbroken row of houses, and on the
other were small semi-detached villas with little strips of garden about
them. All at once he saw a doctor's red lamp over the d