ut my new course took me right across to
the gutter, and before I had quite realised what had happened I had
speared my tyre with a jagged piece of glass. The tyre popped off with a
report like that of a small revolver, and the next second I was bumping
on the frame. I pulled up as quickly as I could, but the mischief was
done and the tyre was just one great rip from end to end. Luckily I
carried a spare wheel, but I am an unhandy man at the merely mechanical
part of the work, and I took twice as long over it as a professional
would have. By the time I was ready to start again my twenty minutes had
lengthened into an hour, and somehow the knowledge of that worried me.

I packed my tools anyhow, hopped back into the car and threw over my
clutch. The car started with a little jerk that I didn't quite relish,
and on looking over the side I saw that the new wheel was wobbling, not
very much indeed, but just enough to show me that I had bungled my work.
I immediately cut down my speed and proceeded for the rest of the
journey at something closely approaching a snail's pace.

"Now," I said to myself, "if this was in a novel I'd say that the lorry
cut across my path deliberately. But as this is in real life and the
lorry belongs to a firm of respectable grocers it can't be anything else
but just my own darned bad luck."

I dismissed the incident at that and turned my attention to my driving.
I had no intention of mixing myself up in another such accident if I
could possibly avoid it, and now that I had definitely taken service
with Bryce I felt I owed it to him to exercise all reasonable care.
After my first few spasmodic attempts at resistance I had succumbed
rather quickly to his enticing offer. After all, I thought, I wouldn't
be putting myself in any greater danger than I had been in for the past
four years. I had faced sudden death in many shapes and forms during my
sojourn in the strange wild lands about the Line, so much so that, once
I had taken into account the money Bryce was giving me, the present
adventure rather degenerated into a pleasant little game of
hide-and-seek.

I was still turning this over in that portion of my mind which wasn't
occupied with the sheerly mechanical side of my work when I reached the
house. More from force of habit than from any other cause I cast my eyes
along the road, much as if it had been a forest trail that held secrets
only a woodsman could read. Plainly marked in the dust of th