The Thirty-Nine Steps

e of the Rad

; glancing back at first over my shoulder, and looking anxiously to the next turning; then driving with a vague eye, ju

were eyewash, and so was Karolides. And yet not quite, as you shall hear. I had staked everything on my belief in his story, and had

y than the killing of a Dago. It was so big that I didn't blame Scudder for keeping me out of the game and wanting to play a lone hand. That, I was pretty clear, was his intention. He had told me something w

reliability of each stage in the yarn. The four names he had printed were authorities, and there was a man, Ducrosne, who got five out of a possible five; and another fellow, Ammersfoort, who got three. The bare bones of the tale were all that was in

ruary 1912. Karolides was going to be the occasion. He was booked all right, and was to hand in his checks on June 14th, two weeks and four days from that May mo

be high words. But Berlin would play the peacemaker, and pour oil on the waters, till suddenly she would find a good cause for a quarrel, pick it up, and in five hours let fly at us. That was the idea, and a pretty good one too.

at, in spite of all the nonsense talked in Parliament, there was a real working alliance between France and Britain, and that the two General Staffs met every now and then, and made plans for joint action in case of war. Well, in June a very gre

the 'Black Stone'. They represented not our Allies, but our deadly foes; and the information, destined for France, was to be diverted to their p

try inn, overlooking a cabbage garden. This was the story that hum

must show a sign, some token in proof, and Heaven knew what that could be. Above all, I must keep going myself, ready to act when things got riper, and that wa

river. For miles I ran alongside a park wall, and in a break of the trees I saw a great castle. I swung through little old thatched villages, and over peaceful lowland streams, and past gardens blazing with hawthorn and yellow laburnum. The land was so deep in p

Post Office, and on the steps of it stood the postmistress and a policeman hard at work conning a telegra

re united in desiring to see more of me, and that it had been easy enough for them to wire the description of me and the car to thirty villages through wh

ing in a duck-pond or a stable-yard, and I couldn't afford that kind of delay. I began to see what an ass I had been to steal the car. The big green brute would be the

too far north, so I slewed east along a bad track and finally struck a big double-line railway. Away below me I saw another broadish valley, and it occurred to me that if I crossed it I might find some remote inn to pass the night. The evening was now drawing in, and I was fur

f the valley. Down the hill I went like blue lightning, screwing my head round, whenever I dared, to watch that damned flying machine.

e highway. My horn gave an agonized roar, but it was too late. I clapped on my brakes, but my impetus was too great, and there before me a car was sliding athwart my cour

g, leapt on the seat and would have jumped out. But a branch of hawthorn got me in the chest, lifted me up and held me, while a ton or t

gently on a bower of nettles. As I scrambled to my feet a hand took me by

ept on blessing his soul and whinnying apologies. For myself, once I got my wind

ot add homicide to my follies. That's the end of my Scotc

n spare a quarter of an hour, and my house is two minutes off. I'll see you clothed and

brandishing a toothbrush. 'I'

the very man I've been praying for. Are

out the foggiest not

before me, for my own had been pretty well reduced to rags. I selected a loose blue serge, which differed most conspicuously from my former garments, and borrowed a linen collar. Then he haled me to the dining-room, where the remnants of a

some cold ham, while he ya

er fellow, Crumpleton, coming to speak for me tonight, and had the thing tremendously billed and the whole place ground-baited. This afternoon I had a wire from the ruffian saying he had got influenza at Blackpool, and here am I left to do the whole thing myself. I had meant to speak for ten minutes and must now go on for forty, and, though

rbed in his own difficulties to think how odd it was to ask a stranger who had just missed death by an ace and had lost a 1,000-guinea car to add

ch good as a speaker, but I'll t

cle had brought him up-I've forgotten the uncle's name, but he was in the Cabinet, and you can read his speeches in the papers. He had gone round the world after leaving Cambridge, and then, being short of a job, his uncle had advised politics. I gathered that he had no preference in parties. 'Good chaps in both,' he said cheerfully, 'an

two policemen signalled us to sto

e got instructions to look out for a car

to think of something to say myself, but my mind was dry as a stone. The next thing I knew we had drawn up outside a door in a street, and were being welcomed by some noisy gentlemen with rosettes. The hall had about five hundred in it, women mostly, a lot of bald heads, and a dozen or two young m

double and crooning over his papers. It was the most appalling rot, too. He talked about the 'German menace', and said it was all a Tory invention to cheat the poor of their rights and keep back the great flood of social reform, but that 'organized labour' realized this and laughed the Tories to scorn. He was all for reducing our Navy a

out behind the muck with which he had been spoon-fed. Also it took a load off my mind.

arty and emigration and universal service. I doubt if I remembered to mention Free Trade, but I said there were no Tories in Australia, only Labour and Liberals. That fetche

ough, and when he proposed a vote of thanks, spoke of Sir Harry's speech a

ver. 'A ripping speech, Twisdon,' he said. 'Now, you're coming home with me. I'm

y smoking-room with a crackling wood fire. I thought the time had come for me to pu

say to you. You're a good fellow, and I'm going to be frank. Wher

I got most of it out of the PROGRESSIVE MAGAZINE and pamphlets that agent chap of mi

n answer,' I said. 'If you'll give me your attentio

on, standing aside and listening to my own voice, and judging carefully the reliability of my tale. It was the first time I had ever told anyone the exact truth, so far as I understood it, and it did me no end of good, for i

for the police and give me up. I don't think I'll get very far. There'll be an accident, and I'll have a knife in my ribs an hour or so after ar

steady eyes. 'What was your job i

made my pile cleanly and I've had

n that weakens t

unting-knife from a stand on the wall, and did the old Mashona trick of

rm, but I can size up a man. You're no murderer and you're no fool, and I beli

ncle. I've got to get in touch with the Govern

nothing to do with it. Besides, you'd never convince him. No, I'll go one better. I'll write to the Pe

thought I had better stick to that name) turned up before June 15th he was to entreat him kindly. He

ather-his name's Sir Walter Bullivant-down at his country cottage for Whitsuntide

hes I destroyed this afternoon. Then show me a map of the neighbourhood and explain to me the lie of the land. Lastly, if the police c

ome notion of my whereabouts, and told me the two things I wanted to know-where the main railway to the south could be joined and what were the wildest districts near at hand. At tw

l into the hills. Then I should pitch the machine into a bog and take to the moors on foot

the mists cleared before the sun, I found myself in a wide green world with glens falling on e