The Thirty-Nine Steps

of the Bald

for I had neither coat nor waistcoat. These were in Mr Turnbull's keeping, as was Scudder's little book, my watch and-worst of all

enjoy this crazy game of hide-and-seek. So far I had been miraculously lucky. The milkman, the literary innkeeper, Sir Harry, the roadman, and the

yself-for the ginger biscuits merely emphasized the aching void-with the memory of all the good food I had thought so little of in London. There were Paddock's crisp sausages and fragrant shavings of bacon, and shapely poached eggs-how often I had turned up my nose at them! There were the cutlets they

slept heavily. I saw first the pale blue sky through a net of heather, then a big shoulder of hill, and then my own boots placed neatly

off, spaced out on the hillside like a fan, and beating the

ce. This led me presently into the narrow gully of a burn, by way of which I scrambled to the top of the ridge. From there

to the others. I heard cries coming up from below, and saw that the line of search had changed its direction. I pretended to retreat over the skyline, but instead went back the way I had come, and in t

so would soon put a deep glen between me and my enemies. The exercise had warmed my blood, and I was be

ie of the land, and that my ignorance would be a heavy handicap. I saw in front of me a sea of hills, rising very high towards the south, but northwards breaking down into broad ridges which s

tly called in local talent to their aid, and the men I could see had the appearance of herds or gamekeepers. They hallooed at the sight of me, and I waved my hand. Two d

be my undoing, and I resolved to get out of this tangle of glens to the pocket of moor I had seen from the tops. I must so increase my distance as to get clear away from them, and I believed I could do this if I could find the right ground for it. If there had been cover I

came out on a highroad which made a pass between two glens. All in front of me was a big field of heather sloping up to a crest which was cro

a very respectable road, which was evidently kept with some care. Clearly it ran to a house, and I began to think of doing the same. Hitherto m

w deep and the high banks made a tolerable screen. It was well I did so, for no sooner had I gai

ks and an overgrown garden. Then I was among young hay, and very soon had come to the edge of a plantation of wind-blown firs. From there I saw the chimneys of the house smoking a few hundred yards to my left.

, which are not usually garden birds, rose at my approach. The house before me was the ordinary moorland farm, with a more pretentious white

oom, glass on one side, and on the other a mass of books. More books showed in an inner room. On the floor

entleman. His face was round and shiny, like Mr Pickwick's, big glasses were stuck on the end of his nose, and the top of his head

ed, and to win his aid. I did not attempt it. There was something about the eye of the man before me,

urry, my friend,

e moor through a gap in the plantation, and revealed cert

pair of field-glasses through which

my privacy being broken in upon by the clumsy rural policeman. Go into my study, and you will see

dinary man took

s, and was lit only by a tiny window high up in the wall. The door had swung behind m

eman which puzzled and rather terrified me. He had been too easy and ready,

rching the house, and if they did they would want to know what was behind this

ng my breakfast. Bacon and eggs would content me, but I wanted the better part of a flitch of bacon and half a

he house sitting in a deep armchair in the room he

ey gone?

not choose that the police should come between me and one whom I am de

se of Scudder's came back to me, when he had described the man he most dreaded in the world. He had said th

e for the open air. He seemed to anticipate my intention

men-servants who had m

me before. And as the reflection darted

d roughly. 'And who are you calling

But of course you have others.

, lacking coat and waistcoat and collar, would at any rate not

irty trick. My God, I wish I had never seen that cursed motor-car! Here's

I will have a little private settlement with you, that is all. You know a lit

but I could see the dawni

r devil with an empty stomach picking up some money he finds in a bust-up motor-car? That's all I done, and for that I've been chivvied for two days by t

hat the doubt

th the story of your r

'I've not had a bite to eat for two days. Give me a

ught and a glass of beer, and I wolfed them down like a pig-or rather, like Ned Ainslie, for I was keeping up my char

d, looking through, had seen a big motor-car lying in the burn. I had poked about to see what had happened, and had found three sovereigns lying on the seat and one on the floor. There was nobody there or any sign of an owner, so I had pocketed the cash. But somehow

ne me. Those perishers are all down on a poor man. Now, if it had been

od liar, Han

born days. I'd sooner have the police than you with your Hannays and your monkey-faced pistol tricks ... No, guv'nor, I b

earance must have altered considerably from my photographs, if he had got one of t

ou will soon have a chance of clearing yourself. If you are what I

a third servant appe

ve minutes,' he said. 'There

at me, and that was th

. I had a strong impulse to throw myself on his mercy and offer to join his side, and if you consider the way I felt about the whole thing you will see that th

e next time, g

way, 'you will put this fellow in the storeroom till I r

of the room with a

was black as pitch, for the windows were heavily shuttered. I made out by groping that the walls were lined with boxes and barrels and sacks of some heavy st

they would remember me, for I was in the same rig. What was a roadman doing twenty miles from his beat, pursued by the police? A question or two would put them on the track. Probably they had seen Mr Turnbull

e ghoulish aliens. But they wouldn't have listened to me. That old devil with the eyelids had not taken long to get rid of them. I thought he probably had some kind of graft with the constabula

ed that I had Scudder's courage, for I am free to confess I didn't feel any great fortitude. The only thing that kept me going was that I was pretty furious. It made me

ldn't move them. From the outside came the faint clucking of hens in the warm sun. Then I groped among the sacks and boxes. I couldn't open the latter, and the sacks

something better to do I put out my strength on that door, getting some purchase on the handle by looping my braces round it. Presently the th

ts and struck a light. It was out in a second, but it showed me one thing. There was a littl

f fine copper wire and yanks and yanks of thin oiled silk. There was a box of detonators, and a lot of cord for fuses. Then away at the back of the shelf I found a

lt it and put my tongue to it. After that I sat down to think. I hadn't

ble was that my knowledge wasn't exact. I had forgotten the proper charge and the right way of preparing it, and I wasn't sure ab

ed, about five to one in favour of my blowing myself into the tree-tops; but if I didn't I should very likely be occupying a six-foot hole in the garden by

cold-blooded resolutions. Still I managed to rake up the pluck to set my teeth and choke back the horrid doubts that

boxes might be dynamite. If the cupboard held such deadly explosives, why not the boxes? In that case there would be a glorious skyward journey for me and the German servants and about an acre of surrounding country. There was also the

. There was dead silence-only a shuffle of heavy boots in the passage, and the peaceful cluck of hens fro

he air. Then the wall opposite me flashed into a golden yellow and dissolved with a rending thunder

hink I becam

d me I felt fresh air. The jambs of the window had fallen, and through the ragged rent the smoke was pouring out to the summer noon. I stepped over the broken lintel,

wits left to think of escape. I squirmed up the lade among the slippery green slime till I reached the mill-wheel. Then I wriggled through the ax

wheel in my head kept turning, while my left shoulder and arm seemed to be stricken with the palsy. I looked out of the window and saw a fog still hanging

soon as they found that my body was not in the storeroom. From another window I saw that on the far side of the mill stood an old stone dovecot. If I could get there without leavi

hung on broken hinges. Peeping out, I saw that between me and the dovecot was a piece of bare cobbled ground, where no footmarks would show. Also it was m

e verge of falling. But I managed it somehow. By the use of out-jutting stones and gaps in the masonry and a tough ivy root I got to the

as a little gap in the parapet to which I wriggled, and from which I had some sort of prospect of the yard. I saw figures come out-a servant with his head bound up, and then a younger man in knickerbockers. They were looking for something, and moved towards the mill. Then on

side, and stood just below the dovecot arguing fiercely. The servant with the bandage was being soundly rated. I heard them fiddling with t

r the cool drip of water from the mill-lade. I watched the course of the little stream as it came in from the moor, and my fancy followed it to the top o

eed away with two occupants, and a man on a hill pony riding east. I

the big hills six miles off. The actual summit, as I have mentioned, was a biggish clump of trees-firs mostly, with a few ashes and beeches. On the dovecot I was almost on a le

idst of a big amphitheatre, any observer from any direction would conclude it had passed out of view behind the hill. Only a man very close at hand would realize that the aeroplane had not gone over but had descended in the midst of the wood. An observer with a telescope on one of the high

d glad I was when the sun went down over the big western hills and the twilight haze crept over the moor. The aeroplane was late. The gloaming was far advanced when I heard the b

ld judge, I started to descend. It wasn't easy, and half-way down I heard the back door of the house open, and saw the gleam of a lantern against the mill wall. For some agonizing minu

ealized that any attempt would probably be futile. I was pretty certain that there would be some kind of defence round the house, so I went through the wood on hands and knees, feeling carefully every in

and in five minutes I was deep in bracken and heather. Soon I was round the shoulder of the rise, in the little glen from

put half a dozen miles between