CHAPTER XXII.
LORD LABRADOR.
The Roman causeway ran into the macadam high road from Harthborough toTimsdale-Horton almost on the level, with still a slight fall towardsHarthborough, the smoke of whose chimneys was already visible.
Half a mile ahead of them was a knot of men, gathered about what mighthave 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 yardas we go by. We go right through. Shan't give 'em an inch."
The car darted forward. The road ran between stone dykes, borderingpasture and arable enclosures. The pace, close upon fifty miles an hour,took them up to and past the suspected group so swiftly that it wasimpossible to note the faces of the men who formed it while theirmovements of recoil and surprise might have been due to the unusualspeed alone.
But a little later, Amaryllis, turning in her seat, thought she saw asmall cloud of dust start up from the road; and Dick, on the assumptionof a pursuit almost as swift as his flight, found himself involved inthe solution of complex chances.
The road he followed, as he had been able to determine from the higherground, led directly to the railway station in the centre ofHarthborough. It was now five minutes past five o'clock--ten minutesbefore the train's scheduled time of departure; which, allowing twominutes for reaching the station, would mean eight minutes to spend onthe 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 orin railway carriage, would be no protection to Amaryllis. If the pickethad been able to distinguish their leader in his car as it flashed bythem, they must have guessed him a prisoner, and, as such, the probableKing'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 chase, Dick took the right line of the fork,which bent to hide him, if only for a moment, from the side-car.
"The station's down the other road," said Amaryllis.
"Yes," said Dick. "Don't want more than three minutes there before thetrain pulls out."
He slowed suddenly, having seen his expected by-road a little way ahead.
"I'm turning back to the left here," he explained. "Look back as Iswing, and see if they're in sight."
"Not a sign," said Amaryllis.
But as she spoke they heard the detonations of a back-fire, andpictured, though they could not see, Melchard's avengers plunging awaysouthward, past the end of the lane into which Dick had turned.
This lane between two rows of blunt cottage-fronts soon proved itselfnot merely a refuge, but an avenue.
At eleven minutes past five Dick Bellamy stopped Melchard's car outsidethe booking-office of somnolent Harthborough's dead-alive station--thejunction of the single-line track to Whitebay and its bathing machineswith the double-track branch of the G.N.R. from York to Caterscliff.
A hopeless porter languished against the hot bricks of the doorway. Dickcame round between him and Melchard, peering down upon that sordid wreckof smartness. He turned to Amaryllis, who had followed him.
"Pore old guv'nor!" he said tenderly; and Amaryllis with difficultyrestrained her surprise at his change from the local dialect to that ofthe London cab-rank. "They 'aven't arf filled 'im up proper this time."Then, to the porter, despondently interested in this queer company, "Hi,chum! Give us a 'and," he said, pulling from his pocket a confusion ofsilver, and crumpled Treasury notes. "Is the London trine up yet?"
"Signalled, she be," said the porter, peering at Melchard.
"Keep yer eyes off wot's no blinkin' good to 'em" said Dick. Then,lowering his voice to oily confidence, he went on: "It's young LordLabrador--Marquis of Toronto's 'opeful. Put 'im through the mill, they'ave, at yer three-legged race meetin' at Timsdale-'Orton. Made me larfshockin', it did. 'E's got to meet 'is lovin' pa, ten o'clock a.m.ter-morrer mornin', an' I said as I'd see 'im through, and get 'm a washan' brush up. I train a bit for 'im--the young un, yer know."
"Well, 'tain't noah business o' mine," said the porter.
"'Ow much to make it yourn, sonny?"
"Ah doan't rightly knaw."
"Won't be less'n a dollar, mate--see?"
The porter saw.
Dick thrust notes into his hand.
"Get us three firsts to King's Crawss, and 'ave a label ready to smudgeon the winder, w'ile me an' my girl gets 'im through to the platform,nice and cushy."
Supported on each side, with flaccid legs just able to move in turn,Melchard was guided to a bench some way down the platform, and seatedbetween two bolstering forms to which the contact was disgusting.
Fortunately they had the up-platform to themselves.
The train was late, and the long minutes held each more of anxiety thanthe last.
The porter came with the tickets.
"'Eere's 'opeless 'Arry," said Dick, going to meet him.
"Wi't'yoong spark in thot trim," said the porter, pocketing a tip ofweight to gratify without astounding, "Ah'd'a' pushed onto Lunnon wi''im in t'car."
"Not if you'd borrered it, Mr. 'Opeless. She belongs to a Mr. Mills o'Melborough--Na-ow! _Melchard_ o' Millsborough. 'E's one o' them therepainful dentisters."
A sound like a smothered sneeze, followed by a syncopated gurgle, comingfrom behind him, warned Dick to tone down the comic relief.
"You get the car run into cover, and keep an eye on 'er till that therePluck-'em-W'ile-yer-Wait comes a sorrowing arter 'er. Tell 'im myaddress is No. 5, John Street, London, and I'll settle for the bit o'damage. There's no need to bring 'is young lordship in. There's plentyo' wailin' an' gnashin' comin' to 'im, any'ow."
In a sad-coloured notebook, with a stump of dirty pencil, the portersolemnly noted that classic address.
"An' that's more trouble for _you_, so 'ere's a few more bits o' wot wetakes it for."
Four minutes late, the train rumbled in.
With less difficulty than it had taken to extract him from the car, Dickand the porter got Melchard into the corner of a first-class compartmentof the last carriage on the train--behind the guard's van even, beingthe London "slip," the porter told them as he slapped his "engaged"label on the window.
The guard was on the point of waving his flag when the staccato rush ofa motor-cycle sounded hideously outside the little station.
"Get in," said Dick to Amaryllis.
The guard called to the porter:
"Can't keep 'er. Five minutes behind already," and let his green signalflutter.
Dick followed Amaryllis and closed the door.
And even as the engine made its first slow movement, there came a rushof heavy feet on the wooden flooring of the booking-office, and two menin motor-cycling rig made a determined dash at the train.
The station-master, eager for unpleasing duty, emerged shouting:
"Stand back!"
But the porter would not see nor hear him, and opened the door of thecompartment immediately in front of that which his label had reserved.The runners scrambled in.
Dick had been careful not to show his face until the door--the next, itseemed--was banged shut. But a rapid glance at that very moment showedhim that it was indeed from the next compartment that came thehalf-crown which the porter caught as it fell.
Dick settled back into his seat with the consciousness that thepartition against which he leaned was poor protection from arevolver-bullet.