ngers got as near the floor as they possibly could when the
shooting began. I was in pretty good practice in those days, don't you
know, so the other chaps didn't get much of a look in. We took the four
they left behind them when they bolted on to the next station with us.
Three of them were buried there, if I remember aright."

"There," said Miss Maitland, with an unmistakable look of admiration in
her eyes; "I knew you were different."

"But then I was armed. If I had not been, I should have been on the
floor with the other passengers."

In reply she merely gave him one glance. Mannering returned it with one
equally eloquent. I rose, and stalked to the window. To me Mannering's
championship was an aggravation which I could not bear. Harder still was
it for me to observe the understanding which obviously existed between
him and Miss Maitland. Hitherto I had imagined that I had as good a
chance of winning her love as he had. But at this moment I felt that my
hopes had been shattered.

I think if I had remained a moment longer in the room, I should have
been unable to restrain an impulse to knock some of the self-sufficiency
out of my rival. I left.

Colonel Maitland followed me out, and I heard him ask me to dine with
him on the following day to wipe off the score he owed me.

Without thinking, I accepted. Then I went out into the rain.

CHAPTER VI

I AM ARRESTED

AS I went away from the Maitlands' house I looked neither to the right
hand nor to the left. Where I went, whether I trudged along the high
road or tramped across country, I have not to-day the slightest idea. I
was so enveloped in my own misery, that I was absolutely blind to all
external objects. I could think of nothing but my dead hopes. So onward
I went, stumbling and splashing through the mud, cursing Mannering,
cursing the Motor Pirate, above all cursing myself for my own
pusillanimity. Why had I listened to Winter? Why should I have allowed
myself to be persuaded to play the part of coward, merely that Winter's
car should have been saved from injury?

For a long while my thoughts were as aimless as my progress, but
gradually out of the incoherence one idea crystallized. It was not an
idea to be proud of. My bitterness of heart produced the natural result,
that was all--a burning desire to be revenged upon somebody. I
contemplated revenging myself upon everybody who had anything to do with
my discomfiture, upon Mannering, upon Colone