Joey crouched low in the car, feeling as though her hair was being torn from her head, but blissfully happy all the same. She had absolute confidence in John; he would deal with the Professor. It did not occur to her that seventeen-year-old John on crutches might not be a match for a determined man in perfect health. Her only fear was that the motor-bicycle might get going too soon. There are few bends in a fen road. Those who made them may have had the roads of Russia in their minds, for fen roads tend to be drawn with a ruler from end to end. They saw the Professor, still struggling with his bicycle, more than a mile away. They saw him run pushing his machine, and this time it fired and went. Joey said, "Oh!" in deep disappointment. John grinned again. "Some race, Joey! Hold tight--if he can rip, so can we." He only spoke once again. "You might loosen my dirk, Kid; it's your side." Then he bent himself to the wheel, and got every inch of speed out of the car that was in her. The distance between car and bicycle diminished slowly. The wind roared and tasted salt to the lips; the towers of St. Philip and St. James stood higher and higher. And now the high parapet of the reservoir was in sight. When they passed that, Deeping Royal was not three-quarters of a mile away. "He must be going to see the match after all!" shrieked Joey. She had to scream to run any chance of being heard above the roar of wind and the racing, lurching car. There was still half a mile between car and bicycle when the bicycle was up to the reservoir, and the Professor clapped on his brakes, and dashed for it on foot. "John!" Joey screamed. The play, which the occupants of Blue Dorm had acted to celebrate Miss Craigie's return, rushed suddenly into her mind. She remembered the box of tiny bottles hidden in the cigar case, and the thin cruel smile she had seen on the Professor's face as she looked at him through the keyhole. Perhaps John had the same thought in his mind. The car bumped furiously, and all but overturned. The Professor disappeared round the angle of the reservoir. CHAPTER XX THE PROFESSOR'S DRIVE It all happened so quickly that there was no time to think or wonder, hardly time even to cry out. Something that looked like a hand, emerging from a white cuff and a dark coat sleeve, appeared for one instant above the parapet of the reservoir just by the angle, and almost the same instant two heads, surmounted by the close green hats of the Redlands girls, shot up to one side of it. The arm waved wildly, and then disappeared with suddenness below the parapet, the two heads diving down after it with startling celerity. If ever John's new car travelled, it travelled then! Joey forgot everything else--the match--the roaring furious wind, the sense of cold and hunger--what _was_ happening at the reservoir? And then they were there!