Ambrose Lavendale, DiplomatOppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
History
Ambrose Lavendale, Diplomat
Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
English fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, English; Spy stories, English
They dashed up the hill, travelling almost at the same speed as the
other car. As they passed the church they saw it a speck in the
distance, climbing the next hill. Lavendale slipped in his fourth
speed.
'Thank God for the dust!' he muttered. 'We shall see which way they
go. Hold on, Suzanne. We'll have to take risks.'
The air rushed past them. The finger of the spedometer crept up from
thirty to fifty and sixty miles an hour. They swung round the corner,
and through a tiny village, a cloud of dust rising behind, heedless of
the curses shouted after them by the irate foot passengers.
'He's gone to the right,' Lavendale announced. 'That's Letheringsett.
He'll leave the London road, though, if he can.'
'He'll try to give you the slip,' Major Elwell remarked, 'and take the
train from somewhere.'
Lavendale smiled. The finger in front of them was still creeping
upwards. They missed a hay wagon by a few inches. The pillar of dust
in front of them grew nearer.
'We'll shepherd him into Fakenham,' Lavendale muttered. 'I could catch
him now, if I wanted. They'll have had the message there, though.'
They skirted Letheringsett, up the hill, round corner after corner,
through Thursford, with barely a hundred yards dividing them. Once, at
some cross-roads, the car in front seemed to hesitate and they shot up
to within fifty yards. The light now was becoming bad. There were
little patches of shadow where the trees overhung the road.
'They're giving it up!' Lavendale exclaimed. 'By Jove, we've got them!'
He pointed forward. The road running into Fakenham narrowed. A line
of three soldiers stood across the thoroughfare. With a grinding of
brakes and ponderous swaying of the foremost car, the chase was over.
Mr. Leonard Johnson descended, shaking the dust from his coat.
'Following me?' he asked Lavendale sarcastically.
Major Elwell's hand fell upon his shoulder.
'We're not meaning to lose sight of you again just yet, sir,' he said.
'You know what risk you run in interfering with an American citizen?'
the other demanded.
'Perfectly,' Major Elwell replied.
'You don't, that's certain, or you wouldn't attempt it,' Johnson
snapped. 'However, we can't talk in the street. I'll get into your
car and go on to the inn with you.'
They drove on to the Crown Inn, mounted the outside staircase,
Lavendale in front and Major Elwell bringing up the rear. The
coffee-room was empty. They rang for refreshments and dismissed the
waiter. Johnson threw back his overcoat.
'Now, let's have this out,' he began truculently, addressing Major
Elwell. 'Who the mischief are you, and what do you mean by following
me like this?'
'I am censor for the neighbourhood in which you landed from Holland,
Mr. Johnson,' was the quiet reply. 'Your present position is entirely
the result of your own injudicious behaviour.'
'What exactly do you want?' Johnson demanded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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