Labar fumbled in his pockets and found his warrant card, and his ordinary official card. He passed them over to the motorist. "I'm a police officer, as these will show you. There are just two things you can do for me. One is to send a telephone message. The other is to patch me up and not bother me with questions till some later time." The other descended from his car. "Right you are, Mr. Labar," he said briskly. "Since I'm here and the telephone is two or three miles away, we'll do the patching up first. Now let's have a look at you." By the side of the car Labar stripped to the waist, and the doctor with swift gentle skill examined his wound. "Nothing for a man of your physique to worry about," he declared. "A superficial cut. Chief trouble is that you've been losing blood. We'll soon put that right. Lucky for you that I'm a country practitioner, and carry my supplies about with me." He rummaged in the car. "Reminds me of the old army days. Here, drink this, while I tie you up." He passed a flask to the inspector and busied himself with lint and bandages. Labar, who had been nearer to exhaustion than he had permitted himself to think, felt a wave of new life in him. He began to reconsider his plans. "Doctor," he asked, "would it disarrange your affairs much, if I asked your help for three or four hours?" "Well," said the doctor, "I can't say that any of my patients would be likely to die in that time." "How fast is your car?" "I suppose she could do seventy at a push." "That's good. She can keep up with anything on the road?" The doctor nodded. "Sure thing." "Then I'm going to ask you to take me along to a place called 'Maid's Retreat'--or rather to the road outside the lodge gates. There will be a Rolls Royce somewhere in the vicinity, and I want to follow that wherever it goes--if possible without giving the people in it an indication that we are trailing them. What is your name?" "Ware. I'm one of the local medicos." "You won't need me to tell you, Dr. Ware, after what you've seen of me that there may be trouble. Can you use a gun--an automatic pistol?" "It's some years since I handled one, but I don't think that I've forgotten all that I once knew." "Take this then. I can't shoot for toffee. Don't use it unless I give you the office. Now let's go."