"Yes, sir."
"When?"
"Just now, sir."
"Just now?"
"Not five minutes ago. Just before I saw the bridge on fire here."
"How was that?"
"I live there just beyond, near the road. I heard my pump going."
"Your pump?"
"Yes, sir. I"ve a pump in my front yard. There"s no water piped through here, sir."
"Of course. Go on, Dibley."
"I looked out and saw a machine stopped out in the road. One man was pumping water into a bucket for another."
"Then what did you do?"
"Nothing, sir. I just watched them. Motor people often stop at my pump for water."
"I see. Go on."
"That"s all about them, sir. I thought nothing about it--they wouldn"t wake me to ask for water; they"d just take it. Then I saw the fire over there--"
"No; go back," Eaton interrupted. "First, how many men were there in the car?"
"How many? Three, sir."
Eaton started. "Only three; you"re sure?"
"Yes, sir; I could see them plain. There was the two at the pump; one more stayed in the car."
Eaton seized the man in his intentness. "You"re sure there weren"t any more, Dibley? Think; be sure! There weren"t three more or even one more person hidden in the tonneau of the car?"
"The tonneau, sir?"
"The back seats, I mean."
"No, sir; I could see into the car. It was almost right below me, sir.
My house has a room above; that"s where I was sleeping."
"Then did you watch the men with the water?"
"Watch them, sir?"
"What they did with it; you"re sure they didn"t take it to the rear seat to give it to some one there. You see, we think one of the men was hurt," Eaton explained.
"No, sir. I"d noticed if they did that."
"Then did they put it into the radiator--here in front where motorists use water?"
Dibley stared. "No, sir; I didn"t think of it then, but they didn"t.
They didn"t put it into the car. They took it in their bucket with them. It was one of those folding buckets motor people have."
Eaton gazed at the man. "Only three, you are sure!" he repeated. "And none of them seemed to be hurt!"
"No, sir."
"Then they went off in the other direction from the bridge?"
"Yes, sir. I didn"t notice the bridge burning till after they went.
So I came down here."
Eaton let the man go. Dibley looked again at the girl and moved away a little. She turned to Eaton.
"What does that mean?" she called to him. "How many should there have been in the machine? What did they want with the water?"
"Six!" Eaton told her. "There should have been six in the machine, and one, at least, badly hurt!"
Dibley stood dully apart, staring at one and then at the other and next to the flaming bridge. He looked down the road. "There"s another car coming," he announced. "Two cars!"
The double glare from the headlights of a motor shone through the tree-trunks as the car topped and came swiftly down a rise three quarters of a mile away and around the last turn back on the road; another pair of blinding lights followed. There was no doubt that this must be the pursuit from Santoine"s house. Eaton stood beside Harriet, who had stayed in the driving-seat of the car.
"You know Dibley well, Harriet?" he asked.
"He"s worked on our place. He"s dependable," she answered.
Eaton put his hand over hers which still clung to the driving wheel.
"I"m going just beside the road here," he said to her, quietly. "I"m armed, of course. If those are your people, you"d better go back with them. I"m sure they are; but I"ll wait and see."
She caught at his hand. "No; no!" she cried. "You must get as far away as you can before they come! I"m going back to meet and hold them." She threw the car into the reverse, backed and turned it and brought it again onto the road. He came beside her again, putting out his hand; she seized it. Her hands for an instant clung to it, his to hers.
"You must go--quick!" she urged; "but how am I to know what becomes of you--where you are? Shall I hear from you--shall I ever see you?"
"No news will be good news," he said, "until--"
"Until what?"
"Until--" And again that unknown something which a thousand times--it seemed to her--had checked his word and action toward her made him pause; but nothing could completely bar them from one another now.
"Until they catch and destroy me, or--until I come to you as--as you have never known me yet!"
An instant more she clung to him. The double headlights flared into sight again upon the road, much nearer now and coming fast. She released him; he plunged into the bushes beside the road, and the damp, bare twigs lashed against one another at his pa.s.sage; then she shot her car forward. But she had made only a few hundred yards when the first of the two cars met her. It turned to its right to pa.s.s, she turned the same way; the approaching car twisted to the left, she swung hers to oppose it. The two cars did not strike; they stopped, radiator to radiator, with rear wheels locked. The second car drew up behind the first. The glare of her headlights showed her both were full of armed men. Their headlights, revealing her to them, hushed suddenly their angry e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns. She recognized Avery in the first car; he leaped out and ran up to her.