for
us, and on leaving we proceeded at the same steady pace, arriving in
Crawley something after four. There we found that the mail had passed
through a quarter of an hour before our arrival, and I questioned
whether it would be worth our while to remain any longer on the road.

"We may as well make a night of it," said Forrest, in reply to my
remark on the subject, so I turned the car in the direction of Brighton
again. We bowled along at about fifteen miles an hour, at which rate I
reckoned on catching the mail within half an hour. But we were destined
to overtake it in a considerably shorter time, for just after passing
the third milestone after leaving the village, our path was blocked by
the huge van standing in the middle of the road and all across it.

I pulled up at once. Apparently the vehicle was not much damaged, but
the door was broken open, while the parcels with which it had been laden
were scattered all over the roadway. One horse lay on the roadway
perfectly still, the others had disappeared.

The moment we stopped Forrest leaped from the car; I followed his
example. The first object which met our eyes was the form of a man. He
lay perfectly still, and I thought he was dead, but my companion had
sharper eyes. Taking a knife from his pocket, he hacked at cords which
bound the man hand and foot.

"More work of the Motor Pirate," remarked Forrest grimly, as I came to
his assistance.

The man was not dead, but he had been so roughly gagged that had we
arrived ten minutes later he probably would have been beyond human help.
In the condition he was, it took us ten minutes working vigorously to
restore his respiration; and after that it took the whole of the
contents of my pocket flask to restore him sufficiently to enable him to
give us an account of the mishap which had befallen him.

Then we learned that the man was the driver of the mail, and that
Forrest's surmise that we had happened once more upon the handiwork of
the Motor Pirate was correct. He had, it appeared, been driving quietly
along, when his attention had been arrested by the curious high-toned
hum which presaged the Pirate's approach. He was wondering what the
curious noise could be, when he suddenly realized that a long low car
was beside him. He did not anticipate any harm either to himself or to
his charge, for, though he fancied that the stranger was the noted
criminal, he shared the impression, pretty common until then, that the
Pi