uth yesterday at
dusk, near Salisbury at eleven the same evening, and holding us up on
the confines of St. Albans to night. He would be bound to get his
batteries recharged somewhere and, with a car of such remarkable shape,
how is he to do so without exciting remark? No; electricity is quite out
or the question. I should be glad to think that the car was an electric
one. His capture would only be a matter of a few hours."

An indefinable expression, which might have been a smile, flitted across
Mannering's face.

"I hope, for all our sakes, his motor is an electric one," he said. "At
all events it should not be difficult to track a car of so singular a
shape. If it were built on the same lines as yours or mine, for
instance, the owner might go anywhere without attracting attention."

"Anyhow," I broke in, "until he is captured I'm going for a run every
night with something that will shoot within easy reach. The next time I
have the fortune to meet with him I hope I shall be in a position to get
a bit of my own back."

Again a smile appeared on Mannering's face as he exclaimed, "I almost
feel inclined to follow your example. I have nearly forgotten how to
use a pistol since I have resided in this law-ridden land."

"Surely you won't expose your experimental car to the chance of being
rammed by the Motor Pirate," remarked Winter, chaffingly.

Mannering's car was a stock joke with us. It was a particularly
cumbersome vehicle, with heaven only knows what type of body. It might
have been capable of twenty miles an hour on the flat, but that would be
the extreme limit of its powers. "You fellows," he had explained to us
one day, "have taken to motoring for the fun of flying along the
high-roads at an illegal speed. I have taken to it for a more
utilitarian purpose. I have my own ideas about the motor of the future,
and I am working them out down here. My old caravan is heavy, perhaps,
but I want a heavy car. It's most useful for testing tyres, and that is
one of the special points engaging my attention. Besides, in this car I
am not tempted to get into trouble with the police. Twelve miles an hour
is quite fast enough for all my purposes."

Both Winter and myself had frequently asked him how he was progressing
with his work, but as he had never returned us any but the vaguest of
answers, nor ever invited us into the workshop which had once formed the
stables of the house where he resided, we had thought that his story