Now, this was something if you like, and I don't think any one is going
to wonder either at my surprise, or at the hesitation which overtook
me. To find myself, in this way, confronted by two men who had seemed
so different from what they were, and that not twenty-four hours ago;
to discover one of them disguised as a woman and the other saying he
was a police officer--well, do you blame me for standing there with my
mouth wide open, and my eyes staring with the surprise of it? Pity I
did so, all the same, for the "ne'er-do-well" was on the floor next
moment, and it didn't need a second look to tell me that it would be a
long time before he got up again.

I shall never forget if I live a hundred years (which would be pretty
lucky for a man who thinks less than nothing of speed limits and is
known to all the justices in Sussex), I shall never forget the way that
valet turned on poor Kennaway (for that was the detective's name) and
laid him flat on the grass. Such a snarl of rage I never heard. The
man seemed transformed in an instant from a silent, reserved, taciturn
servant to a very maniac, fighting with teeth and claw, cursing and
swearing horribly, and as strong as a gorilla.

Again and again he struck at his victim, the heavy blows sounding like
the thud of iron upon a carpet; and long before I got my wits back and
leaped to Kennaway's assistance, that poor fellow was insensible and
moaning upon the grass at the roadside. The next thing that I knew
about it was that I had a revolver as close to my forehead as a
revolver will ever be, and that the man Joseph was pushing me toward
the car, the while he said something to which I must listen if I would
save my life.

"Get up, you fool," he cried. "Do you want me to treat you as I've
treated him? Get up, or by the Lord I'll blow your brains out!"

Well, judge me for it how you will, but I obeyed him as any child.
What I had tried to do for poor Kennaway was shown by the cut across my
forehead, which I shall carry to my dying day. Such strength and such
temper I have never known in any man, and they frightened me beyond all
words to tell you. There are human beings and human animals, and this
fellow was of the latter sort. No raving maniac could have done worse
to any fellow creature; and when I got up to the driver's seat and
started the engine, my hands trembled so that I could hardly keep them
on the wheel.

We jumped away, a roar of voices behind us