interferes.--And now, Mr. _Cochero_, pull 'em up in
their tracks or I'll do it for you."

The driver did as he was bade willingly enough, and Haigh nipped down
and levered out the stone with his knife. I stayed where I was. I had
my arms full. To be accurate, they were wrapped round the third member
of our trio, who was wriggling like a demon, and foaming at the mouth
in his wrath.

But after all the halt was only a short one. "All clear," shouted
Haigh, thirty seconds after he had descended. "_Arr-e-ee_, and
away you go, my tulip. Not much time lost there, Senor Taltavull, after
all."

The anarchist favoured him with the most poisonous look of hatred that
I ever beheld, and spoke with shut teeth: "If we fail through this
halt, Senor Haigh, look to yourself."

"Thanks," replied Haigh, squinting at him coolly enough; "I'm quite
capable of doing that same, so think well before you play any pranks."

We didn't talk much after that, but squatted upon our ruin like three
bears, the mules meanwhile being sent along for all they were worth. It
would be hard for me to say how long we took over the passage, as I
didn't clock it, but I dare bet that we covered the ground in record
time for a four-wheeled conveyance.

Only once Haigh spoke. "If we miss this 7.55 train, when's the next?"
he asked.

"Five fifty-five in the afternoon," returned Taltavull gloomily.

"Surely there's a train out of La Puebla before. The service can't be
as fragmentary as all that."

"Yes, another train leaves there at 2.45 for the San Bordils Junction;
but it doesn't go through, and there is no connection on."

"And how far is it by road to Palma?"

The old man did not know, and so I mentioned that the fifty-five
kilometre post was by the quay at Alcudia Port.

"Oh, come," said Haigh, "that isn't so bad after all;" but what he
meant I did not understand, as he relapsed into silence again. But we
were pulling in the last knots very rapidly then, and presently we
passed the cemetery, and got into the wished-for La Puebla. We tore
through the place with the one casualty of a small black porker run
over and left squalling in the road, and pulled up before the station
in time to see the 7.55 train steam out along the metre-gauge track.

Taltavull rushed into the waiting-room, and tried to storm the
barricade, offering threats, money, anything to have the train stopped,
if only for three seconds, whilst he got on board. But the officials
were