very deliberately, lifted his felt
hat, and waved it two or three times round his head, evidently to some
one in the distance. I saw instantly that mischief was afoot and time
precious, yet the fellow was evidently determined and stout-hearted,
besides being physically very powerful, and it would never do to rouse
his suspicions to the pitch of grappling with me. Of course I might
use my revolver, but I had no wish to add a civilian's death to the
other charge I might have to face before that sun had set. Suddenly
luck served me well again by putting into my head a well-known English
cant phrase.

"Are you often taken like that?" I inquired with a smile.

He turned round again and stared blankly. I imitated the movement of
waving a hat, and laughed.

"Or is it a family custom?" I asked.

He was utterly taken aback, and looked rather foolish. I sat still and
continued to smile at him. And then he broke into a smile himself.

"I was just waving on a friend," he explained, and I could detect a
note of apology in his voice. For the moment he was completely
hoodwinked. How long it would last Heaven knew, but I clearly could
not afford to imitate Mr Asquith, and "wait and see."

"Oh," I said with a laugh, "I see!"

And then I glanced at my wristlet watch, and sprang to my feet with an
exclamation.

"By Jove, I'll be late!" I said, and picking up my cycle wheeled it
briskly to the road, remarking genially as I went, "the days are not so
long as they were!"

I never saw a man more obviously divided in mind. Was I the suspicious
person he fancied at first? Or was I an honest and peaceable
gentleman? Meanwhile I had cast one brief but sufficient glance along
the road. Just at the foot of the steep hill down which I had come in
the morning a man was mounting a motor-cycle. Beside him stood one or
two others--country folk, so far as I could judge at the distance, and
piecing things together, it seemed plain that my friend had lately been
one of the party, and that the man they had been gossiping with was a
motor-cyclist in search of me, who had actually paused to make
inquiries within little over a quarter of a mile from where I sat.
Quite possibly he had been there for some time, and almost certainly he
would have ridden past without suspecting my presence if it had not
been for the diabolical mishap of this chance encounter.

I had planted my cycle on the road, and was ready to mount before my
friend had