the ground,
where we should have been on more equal terms. The jerk moved him about
as much as if he had been built into his car. 'No, you don't,
Inspector,' he said, with an infernal chuckle; and, so saying, he leaned
over and, catching me by the coat, lifted me off my feet and swung me up
on to the car before him. I'm not a light weight, as you can guess--I
turn the scale at something nearer twelve stone than eleven--but he
handled me as if I were a baby. I struggled of course, but my right arm
was powerless, and he could master me with ease."

"I suppose it was during the struggle that you lost the two buttons from
your overcoat which you left behind you?" I asked.

"Most likely," he replied, "though I knew nothing of them. Really his
strength seemed diabolic. There was something else about him which to my
mind scarcely seemed natural. At all my struggles he continued to laugh,
but there was no merriment in his laughter, it was merely an even
guttural cachinnation, the laugh of a fiend at the aimless struggles of
a lost soul. It seemed to give him immense pleasure to see me wriggling
on the smooth curved metal plate which formed the front of his car. I
grew tired at last and lay still, hoping for a chance to better my
position, for I came to the conclusion that in a mere trial of strength
he was immeasurably my superior.

"When he saw my resistance had ceased, he spoke again. 'I feel inclined
to take you for a ride with me, Inspector,' he said. 'I can assure you
that you will find the experience a thrilling one. It is given to few
men to travel with the Motor Pirate. The pace alone should prove
exhilarating, to say nothing of the companionship and--what awaits you
at the termination of the entertainment.' He chuckled again as he
concluded, and I felt a cold thrill in the region of my spine.

"I made no reply. What would have been the use? But I do wish my right
arm had been of some use, for I think in my anger I might have stood
some chance of turning the tables on him. I quietly tried to rub the
feeling back into it, but he did not afford me a chance of doing so for
long. He produced a length of rope from somewhere or other, and, before
I gathered what he was doing, he had twisted it round me and bound my
arms tightly to my sides. I was absolutely powerless, and I gnashed my
teeth with rage at the helpless state in which I found myself. There was
I, a detective inspector with a reputation at the Yard second to no