"I don't know. Is it worse than charging you with three separate
attempts to murder me?"

"Are you going to take me to jail?"

"I'll see. You'll go as far as Orangeville with me, anyhow."

"I don't care to go."

"I don't care whether you want to go or not. Get into the car!"

She climbed to the seat beside the wheel; he tossed in the olive-wood
box, turned on his lamps, and took the wheel.

"May I have a match for my cigarette?" she asked meekly.

He found one, scratched it; she placed a very thick and long cigarette
between her lips and he lighted it for her.

Just as he threw in the clutch and the car started, the girl blew a
shower of sparks from the end of her cigarette, rose in her seat, and
flung the lighted cigarette high into the air. Instantly it burst into
a flare of crimson fire, hanging aloft as though it were a fire
balloon, and lighting up road and creek and bushes and fields with a
brilliant strontium glare.

Then, far in the night, he heard a motor horn screech three times.

"You young devil!" he said, increasing the speed. "I ought to have
remembered that every snake has its mate.... If you offer to touch
me--if you move--if you as much as lift a finger, I'll throw you into
the creek!"

The car was flying now, reeling over the dirt road like a drunken
thing. He hung grimly to the wheel, his strained gaze fixed on the
shaft of light ahead, through which the road streamed like a torrent.

A great wind roared in his ears; his cap was gone. The car hurled
itself forward through an endless tunnel of darkness lined with
silver. Presently he began to slow down; the furious wind died away;
the streaking darkness sped by less swiftly.

"Have you gone mad?" she cried in his ear. "You'll kill us both!"

"Wait," he shouted back; "I'll show you and your friends behind us
what speed really is."

The car was still slowing down as they passed over a wooden bridge
where a narrow road, partly washed out, turned to the left and ran
along a hillside. Into this he steered.

"Who is it chasing us?" he asked curiously, still incredulous that any
embassy whatever was involved in this amazing affair.

"Friends."

"More Turks?"

She did not reply.

He sat still, listening for a few moments, then hastily started his
car down the hill.

"Now," he said, "I'll show you what this car of mine really can do!
Are you afraid?"

She said between her teeth:

"I'd be a fool if I were not. All I pray for is tha