tion forced itself home that
they were being gradually but surely overhauled.

He took this intelligence to the ear of Jules. The chauffeur answered
only with a worried shake of his head that said too plainly he was
doing his best, extracting every ounce of power from the engine.

Ill luck ambushed them in the streets of a sizable town, its name
unknown to Lanyard, where another car, driven inexpertly, rolled out of
a side street and stalled in their path. The emergency brake saved them
a collision; but there were not six inches between the two when the
touring car stopped dead; and minutes were lost before the other got
under way and they were able to proceed.

Less than three hundred yards separated pursued and pursuer as they
raced out through open fields once more. And foot by foot this lead was
being inexorably cut down.

In the seat beside the driver of the grey car a man rose and, steadying
himself by holding onto the windshield, poured out the contents of an
automatic, presumably hoping to puncture the tires of the quarry. A
bullet bored a neat hole through the windshield between the heads of
Liane Delorme and Jules. The woman slipped down upon the floor and
Jules crouched over the wheel. Lanyard fingered his automatic but held
its fire against a moment when he could be more sure of his arm.

Instead, he turned to the lunch hamper and opened it. Liane's
provisioning had been ample for a party thrice their number. In the
bottom of the basket lay six pint bottles of champagne, four of them
unopened. Lanyard took them to the rear seat--and found the grey car
had drawn up to within fifty yards of its prey. Making a pace better
than seventy miles per hour, it would not dare swerve.

The first empty bottle broke to one side, the second squarely between
the front wheels. He grasped the first full bottle by the neck and felt
that its weight promised more accuracy, but ducked before attempting to
throw it as a volley of shots sought to discourage him. At the first
lull he rose and cast the bottle with the overhand action employed in
grenade throwing. It crashed fairly beneath the nearer forward wheel of
the grey car, but without effect, other than to draw another volley in
retaliation. This he risked; the emergency had grown too desperate for
more paltering; the lead had been abridged to thirty yards; in two
minutes more it would be nothing.

The fourth bottle went wild, but the fifth exploded six inches in front