The Motor Pirate

et me see if it will not restore to your

fore the fire, and felt able to forgive even the Motor Pirate. We were alone in the apartment which Winter called his study, but since the only books he read therein were motor-catalogues, and the lounges with which the snuggery was furnished were muc

en introduced to him, I had been rather favourably impressed. He was a tall dark man of thirty-five, with more than the average endowment of good looks. He could tell a good story, had shot big game in most parts of the world,

for my dislike, for-there is no need to mince matters-at this time I was jealous, horribly and unreasonably jealous, of every male person who entered the Colonel's house. And

r. There I met Evie Maitland. She was-- No, every one can fill in the blank

s daughter back to St. Albans. I allowed an interval of a fortnight to elapse, and then I followed. Of course I had to be prepared with some excuse, and here luck favoured me. Looking through the directory I discovered that Winter, whom I knew slightly as having been up at Camford about the same time as myself, was also a

atever that Randolph Mannering was a much more attractive person than my insignificant self. His mere advantage in age counted for something; but I could have forgiven him that, had he not made use of the years to see so much and do so much, that he could not help appearing in the light of a hero to a girl who was just at the worshipping age. And he knew so well how to get the fullest value out of his e

my arrival on the scene. His life, until the Colonel had recognized him as an acquaintance he had made at the house of a friend some years before, had been that of a recluse, the object of his retirement

Winter had proposed to take him into our co

er told the story of our adventu

when the narrative was concluded. "You are qui

s pockets inside out wi

lieve him of fifty pounds in notes, six in gold, a watch and chai

d enable you to trace the thief

when necessary; and really I have nothing to tell me whether those notes I had in my possession were the last batc

could identify our

ugh to attempt to pawn them you may get the chance; but if he sel

annering turned to me. "What

and say thirty for my watch.

notes, I suppose?" he inquired

"I'm not quite so

for the police to

s we show up so badly in the whole affair t

pt soundly through the whole affair, and

" began

kind of motor the fellow employed to propel his car. I know of nothing

to trouble you much, any

a duplicate of that motor. I should be pretty sure

it, why should the owner go in

riend the Motor Pirate is possessed of an ideal car, graceful in shape, making no noise,

an be electricity?" remarked Mannering, gazing into the f

d the feat, remember that, according to the newspaper reports, he was at Plymouth yesterday at dusk, near Salisbury at eleven the same evening, and holding us up on the confines of St. Albans to night. He would be bound to get his batteries recharged s

ch might have been a smile, fl

d not be difficult to track a car of so singular a shape. If it were built on the same line

h something that will shoot within easy reach. The next time I have the fortune

ost feel inclined to follow your example. I have nearly forgotten

car to the chance of being rammed by the

ned to us one day, "have taken to motoring for the fun of flying along the high-roads at an illegal speed. I have taken to it for a more utilitarian purpose. I have my own ideas about the motor of the future, and I am working them out down here. My old caravan is heavy

r ever invited us into the workshop which had once formed the stables of the house where he resided, we had thought that his story of being engaged in m

what I have seen of his car, and what you have told me, I am rather inclined to think that whoever designed it has forestalled me in an idea which I had

k?" interrupted Winter. "We might have

l, and if that fellow has solved the problem--" Shrugging his should

o important on the stocks," remarked W

road, if it had not been for my chagrin at seeing that car to-night

not refer to our adventure

ded Mannering, a

suade us to stay for another peg, I followed Mannering out, declaring that I

r two fleecy clouds were hurrying from the west. The moon, brilliant as earlier in the evening, now hung

. If the Pirate is still abroad he

al to me that I felt annoyed at the current

y companion took no n

ition with longer purses than my own, and if I had bought the fastest car in the market somebody else would have bought one faster. But to-night-- By Jove! How I envy that Motor Pirate. Imagine what the possession of that car means on a night like this, with th

t the intensity of feeling which his speech

m that we are." He turned on his heel and strode away in one direction, while I went in the

ckle of the buds as they cast off their winter coverings, hear the whisper of the grass, which the countryman declares is the sound of growing blades, hear the murmur of all animate things as they rose to welcome the Springtide. My own heart leapt up with a renewal of hope. I s

sharply recalled to earth. On reaching my own doorway for the fifth or sixth time I had just turned, when I saw a black shadow on the road opposite the Maitlands' house. One glance w

hundred miles an hour recurred to me. I had not deemed it possible. But I paced the distance between the Colonel's house and the bend where the strange car had passed out of sigh

y dreams in comfort, while pacing the road, by the consideration of what would have happened