e practically the same. At the same moment the car edged a little
closer to the left-hand side of the road.

Ramblethorne realized the danger. A collision would with almost
certainty result in his receiving a broken neck; capture meant
ignominious death at the hands of a firing-party. There was yet a
third alternative--a dash for safety.

He threw out the clutch and applied both brakes, at the same time
bringing the motor-cycle on to the grassy bank. He alighted on all
fours, but almost immediately regained his feet. The car was already
twenty yards on ahead and still in gear.

He grasped his cycle by the handle-bars and raised it from its
recumbent position. One look showed that the glancing impact had bent
the front forks. The machine was no longer rideable. Without
hesitation he sprang up the bank. As he did so he heard the footfalls
of his pursuers.

"Be steady!" cautioned Ferret, as Ross and Vernon alighted from the
car. "He may be armed. We're the people to take the brunt of it--not
you."

They were now within a few feet of the summit of the road, which at
this spot ran through the hill by means of a cutting. Close by were
three excavations. Someone had evidently attempted to commence
quarrying there, but had abandoned the undertaking. As far as the
detective could conclude, these pits formed the only possible
hiding-place in the vicinity.

"Hist!" exclaimed Hawke, holding up one hand to enjoin silence.

All was still. No sound of stealthily retreating footsteps reached
their ears. Hawke knelt down and placed one ear to the ground.

"Someone breathing pretty hard," he whispered. "He can't be very far
away; in one of these holes most likely. Perhaps he's hurt himself."

An investigation of the first possible hiding-place produced no result.
At the second Ross heard a long-drawn sigh, emanating from a patch of
bushes and tall grass.

"Here you are!" he exclaimed.

The place was in shadow, yet he could discern some dark object lying at
full length in the midst of the grass.

In a trice the two detectives threw themselves upon their prey. For an
instant the man struggled wildly. Ross and his chum joined in the
fray, each hanging on desperately to his plunging legs. Ignominiously
he was dragged from his place of concealment into the bright moonlight.

Ferret was the first to give a gasp of astonishment. Their victim was
not Ramblethorne the spy, but a powerfully built tramp, who, f