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She jacked up, changed wheels and was away again in the shortest possible time. True a little over a quarter of an hour was lost, but the locking ring had rusted in its thread, as sometimes happens, and it was heavy work for a girl to shift it unaided. She had forbidden Barraclough to help and had made him picket a hundred yards down the road in case the pursuers should come up unexpectedly.
"That's sure what I'm frightened of." "If you'd rather I appeared in a blouse and skirt "; but he interrupted the sentence with an uplifted hand. "I've a fancy we'll cut cross talking," he said, "and come to grips." "About what?" "This young fellow Barraclough has cut ice with you?" "I thought you knew my feelings about him." "To borrow from your vocabulary 'one changes," he replied.
A casual passer-by would never have noticed the low built pigsty that butted on to the hedge, its roof and sides being almost completely masked with brushwood and bramble vine. Barraclough could not resist an exclamation of joy as he noted that the big piles of carelessly thrown kindlings were apparently untouched.
"So I'm a sport," said Mrs. Barraclough with a smile. "But even so, why should I want looking after?" "That's what puzzles me," said Isabel. Jane and Flora exchanged glances. "I don't know whether we ought to," said Jane. "He's my fiancé," said Isabel, "and you're jolly well not going to keep me in the dark." "And quite incidentally," Mrs. Barraclough remarked, "he's my son."
And then it was that Cranbourne who, curled up in the window seat with his chin resting on his knees, had taken no part in the debate, made his first observation. "If Barraclough is to succeed it will have to be in the next three days. At midnight on the 27th he is going to be kidnapped." All eyes turned upon Cranbourne as he made this announcement.
The others were too busily engaged to attend to such a trifle. "Let them have it, Flora," said Barraclough, sweetly. "They are friends of mine. Do as I tell you." "You girls get out," gasped Harrison Smith, coming down breathlessly with the envelope, and after Flora and Jane had escaped into the garden, "Cornered, Mr. Barraclough, and we've got the goods." Anthony was smiling.
Harrison Smith dropped silently to the ground and his breath came short and sharp. "I was right I was right," he gasped. "Hispano Suisa by the look of it and fast too. Shouldn't have much chance against that outfit." Naturally enough he resolved that it would never do to allow Barraclough to get as far as the stable.
It was Dirk who moved forward suspiciously as Barraclough picked up the bonnet and moved toward the bedroom. Harrison Smith waved him back. "There's no other door. Keep a watch on the window," he ordered. Anthony entered unmolested and at precisely that moment Bolt came in from the garden. The united forces did not waste time in greetings. "We've got him," said Harrison Smith.
"If you touch that cable I'll put a bullet through your wrist," said Barraclough. "Sit down and attend to me." He obeyed, shaking his head perplexedly. "Damn me, if I can get the strength of it." "Then listen," said Barraclough, steadying his aim along the ash rail of the luggage rack, "and keep your hands in your lap.
It was payable to the order of Anthony Barraclough. Richard flicked it aside. "Old ground," he said. "No good to me, gentlemen." "Let's talk." "Fire away." "I needn't repeat what you have to do to earn that trifle, Anthony, but here's a point worth considering. Doubtless you got the idea the price we're willing to pay'll rise. You're wrong it'll fall.
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