watching to see if they were
followed--having little doubt they were--and took his ease by the side
of Liane Delorme.

Chatting of old times, or sitting in grateful silence when Liane
relapsed into abstraction--something which she did with a frequency
which testified to the heavy pressure of her thoughts--he kept an
appreciative eye on Jules, conceding at length that Liane's adjective,
superb, had been fitly applied to his driving. So long as he remained
at the wheel, they were not only in safe hands but might be sure of
losing nothing on the road.

It was in St. Germain-en-Laye that Lanyard first noticed the grey
touring car. But for mental selection of St. Germain as the likeliest
spot for Dupont to lay in waiting, and thanks also to an error of
judgment on the part of that one, he must have missed it; for there was
nothing strikingly sinister in the aspect of that long-bodied grey car
with the capacious hood betokening a motor of great power. But it stood
incongruously round the corner, in a mean side street, as if anxious to
escape observation; its juxtaposition to the door of a wine shop of the
lowest class was noticeable in a car of such high caste; and, what was
finally damning, the rat-faced man of Lyons was lounging in the door of
the wine shop, sucking at a cigarette and watching the traffic with an
all too listless eye shaded by the visor of a shabby cap.

Lanyard said nothing at the time, but later, when a long stretch of
straight road gave him the chance, verified his suspicions by looking
back to see the grey car lurking not less than a mile and a half
astern; the Delorme touring car driven by Leon keeping a quarter of a
mile in the rear of the limousine.

These relative positions remained approximately unchanged during most
of the light hours of that long evening, despite the terrific pace
which Jules set in the open country. Lanyard, keeping an eye on the
indicator, saw its hand register the equivalent of sixty English miles
an hour more frequently than not. It seldom dropped below fifty except
when passing through towns or villages. And more often than he liked
Lanyard watched it creep up to and past the mark seventy.

With such driving he was quite willing to believe that they would see
Cherbourg or Heaven by midnight if not before; always, of course,
providing...

For the first three hours Leon stood the pace well. Then nerves or
physical endurance began to fail, he dropped back, and the Delor