e he added curtly:

"Be quiet, please. I'm driving."

She chuckled softly to herself, thinking how well already she began to
understand his ways--ways so odd and dear, she told herself, that never,
she was sure, would she tire of them.

CHAPTER XXII.

LORD LABRADOR.

The Roman causeway ran into the macadam high road from Harthborough to
Timsdale-Horton almost on the level, with still a slight fall towards
Harthborough, the smoke of whose chimneys was already visible.

Half a mile ahead of them was a knot of men, gathered about what might
have been a wheelbarrow. A quarter of a mile further,

"Three men," said Dick.

"Motor-cycle and side-car," said Amaryllis. "Is it another picket?"

Instead of answering, Dick replied with a command:

"Hold tight. Don't turn to look at 'em. You're talking to me by the yard
as we go by. We go right through. Shan't give 'em an inch."

The car darted forward. The road ran between stone dykes, bordering
pasture and arable enclosures. The pace, close upon fifty miles an hour,
took them up to and past the suspected group so swiftly that it was
impossible to note the faces of the men who formed it while their
movements of recoil and surprise might have been due to the unusual
speed alone.

But a little later, Amaryllis, turning in her seat, thought she saw a
small cloud of dust start up from the road; and Dick, on the assumption
of a pursuit almost as swift as his flight, found himself involved in
the solution of complex chances.

The road he followed, as he had been able to determine from the higher
ground, led directly to the railway station in the centre of
Harthborough. It was now five minutes past five o'clock--ten minutes
before the train's scheduled time of departure; which, allowing two
minutes for reaching the station, would mean eight minutes to spend on
the platform, even if the train were up to time.

Eight minutes for the men with the side-car to reach the station and----

And what?

Even the intoxicated Melchard, should it come to gun-play on platform or
in railway carriage, would be no protection to Amaryllis. If the picket
had been able to distinguish their leader in his car as it flashed by
them, they must have guessed him a prisoner, and, as such, the probable
King's evidence to hang them.

For his satellites, Melchard was safer dead than captive.

Just ahead the road branched. Resolved to shorten his time of waiting,
and hoping to mislead the c