had suddenly become
very watchful of the driver.

Presently the man exclaimed in French:

"I do not feel very well!"

"What is the matter?" asked Hugh in alarm. "You must not be taken ill
here--so far from anywhere!"

But the man was evidently unwell, for he pulled up the car.

"Oh! my head!" he cried, putting both hands to his brow as the cigarette
dropped from his lips. "My head! It seems as if it will burst! And--and
I can't see! Everything is going round--round! Where--_where am I_?"

"You are all right, my friend. Get into the back of the car and rest.
You will be yourself very quickly."

And he half dragged the man from his seat and placed him in the back of
the car, where he fell inert and unconscious.

The cigarette which The Sparrow had given to Hugh only to be used in
case of urgent necessity had certainly done its work. The man, whether
friend or enemy, would now remain unconscious for many hours.

Hugh, having settled him in the bottom of the car, placed a rug over
him. Then, mounting to the driver's place, he turned the car and drove
as rapidly as he dared back over the roads to Salon.

Time after time, he wondered whether he had been misled; whether, after
all, the man who had driven him was actually acting under The Sparrow's
orders. If so, then he had committed a fatal error!

However, the die was cast. He had acted upon his own initiative, and if
a net had actually been spread to catch him he had successfully broken
through it. He laughed as he thought of the police at Cette awaiting
his arrival, and their consternation when hour after hour passed without
news of the car from Marseilles.

At Salon he passed half way through the town to cross roads where he had
noticed in passing a sign-board which indicated the road to Avignon--the
broad high road from Marseilles to Paris.

Already he had made up his mind how to act. He would get to Avignon,
and thence by express to Paris. The _rapides_ from Marseilles and the
Riviera all stopped at the ancient city of the Popes.

Therefore, being a good motor driver, Hugh started away down the
long road which led through the valley to Orgon, and thence direct to
Avignon, which came into sight about seven o'clock in the morning.

Before entering the old city of walls and castles Hugh turned into a
side road about two miles distant, drove the car to the end, and opening
a gate succeeded in getting it some little distance into a wood, where
it was well c