She advanced and took his arm in a wifely grasp. Robert, feeling the chains imminent, resolved to play his last card. It was his sole remaining hope of freedom. Bruskly he freed his arm. Then with incredible agility he ran to the aeroplane and scrambled into the pilot's seat. "Now, then!" he said grimly; "you admit that _I_ am to be head, and I'll come down. Otherwise I'll start this infernal machine. I don't much care what happens." "Robert!" screamed his wife, shaken out of her composure. "Oh, Robert! come down!" "Not till you promise!" he said, fumbling at unaccustomed levers. "Here, sir! how do you start it?" "You fool!" shouted Billing, alarmed, as chance directed Robert to the object of his search. "Stand clear!" he screamed, fearing the propeller would start and hit the bystanders. He pulled Beatrice aside, and Tony did the same for Mrs. Hedderwick. "Stop it, you fool! No!--the other lever! The machine will be up in a minute." "Promise!" screamed Robert, like one possessed. He was playing for life now, and was past caring. "I--I promise!" wailed Mrs. Hedderwick, as the propeller began to move, and then at last Robert obeyed the frantic instructions of Billing and stopped the engine. He descended with all the honors of war. "You will excuse us," he said with a pale smile, taking Mrs. Hedderwick by the arm. "We are stopping at The Happy Heart to-night. Perhaps, to-morrow...." He retired at the right moment, his wife beneath his manly protecting arm. "There! there!" he whispered soothingly as they walked off; "it's all right now, my love! You mustn't be frightened." "Oh, Robert!" said Mrs. Hedderwick. "How could you--how _could_ you do it! I--I didn't know you had it in you!" Robert expanded a hero's chest. "My dear, love is proverbially blind." CHAPTER XXVI THE USUAL THING Beatrice and the three men watched the passing of the Hedderwicks in amused silence. When they had disappeared from view Billing said, "Well, that's done ... and now, Miss Blair, I'm really going." "Me, too," said Tony lightly. "I mean to have a shy for that seven-thirty train." "Then you're determined?" said Beatrice to both men. Billing nodded with a smiling melancholy. Tony smiled more cheerfully. Though this interview with Miss Arkwright in the afternoon had opened his eyes, he was not so hard hit as the air-man: things had not had time to go so far. "I'll just wait and see the machine start," he said. "Then ho! for the station and prosaic London once more!" "If you like," said Billing, "I'll take you back to Brooklands with me. This is a two-seater. Unless you've a bad head for heights." "I've fallen from too many to mind," said Tony ruefully. "My biggest drop occurred this afternoon. Thanks very much. If you'll give me time to collar a coat and a rug, I'm your man."