Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / The Wheels of Chance Chapters 20 to 23

Transcript

The Wheels of Chance Chapters 20 to 23 · The H. G. Wells Library

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Part seven of the Wheels of Chance. This is a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: The Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells, Chapter twenty.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: The pursuit and now to tell if mister hoopdriver rising
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: with the sun, vigilant, active, wonderful, the practical half of
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the lead framed window stuck open, ears alert, and eye
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: flickering incessantly in the corner panes in oblique glances at
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: the angelic front. Miss Wardour wanted him to have his
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: breakfast downstairs in her kitchen, but that would have meant
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: abandoning the watch, and he held out strongly the bicycle
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: cap a pie occupied under protest a strategic position in
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the shop. He was expectant by six in the morning.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: By nine, horrible fears oppressed him that he his quest
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: had escaped him, and he had to reconnoiter the angel
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: yard in order to satisfy himself. There he found the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: ostler brushing down the bicycles of the chase, and he returned,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: relieved to missus Wardour's premise, and about ten they emerged
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: and rode quietly up the north street. He watched them
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: until they turned the corner of the post office, and
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: then out onto the road, and up after them in
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: fine style. They went by the engine house, where the
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: old stalks and the whipping posts are, and on to
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: the Chichester Road, and he followed gallantly. So this great
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: chase began. They did not look round, and he kept
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: them just within sight, getting down if he chanced to
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: draw closer upon them round a corner. By riding vigorously.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: He kept quite conveniently near them, for they made but
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: little hurry. He grew hot, indeed, and his knees were
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: a little stiff to begin with, but that was all.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: There was little danger of losing them, for a thin
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: chalky dust lay upon the road, and the track of
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: her tire was milled like a shilling, and his was
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: a checkered ribbon along the way. So they rode by
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Cobden's Monument and through the prettiest of villages, until at
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: last the downs rose steeply ahead. There they stopped a
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: while at the only inn in the place, and mister
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: hoopdriver took up a position which commanded the inn door,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: and mopped his face and thirsted and smoked red herring cigarette.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: They remained in the inn for some time. A number
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: of chubby innocents returning home from school stopped and formed
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: a line in front of him and watched him quietly
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: but firmly, for the space of ten minutes or so.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Go away, said he, and they only seemed quietly interested.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: He asked them all their names, and they answered indistinct murmurs.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: He gave it up at last and became passive on
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: his gait, and so at length they tired of him.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: The couple under observation occupied the inn so long that
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver, at the thought of their possible employment, hungered
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: as well as he thirsted. Clearly they were lunching. It
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: was a cloudless day, and the sun at the meridian
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: beat down upon the top of mister Hoopdriver's head, a
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: shower bath of sunshine, a huge jet of hot light.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: It made his head swim. At last they emerged, and
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the other man in brown looked back and saw him.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: They rode on to the foot of the down, and, dismounting,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: began to push tediously up that long, nearly vertical ascent
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: of blinding white road. Mister hoopdriver hesitated. It might take
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: them twenty minutes to mount. That beyond was an emptied downland,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: perhaps for miles. He decided to return to the inn
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: and snatch a hasty meal. At the end, they gave
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: him biscuits and cheese and a misleading pewter measure of
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: sturdy ale. Pleasant under the palate, cool in the throat,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: but leaden in the legs of a hot afternoon. He
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: felt a man of substance as he emerged in the
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: blinding sunlight. But even by the foot of the down
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the sun was insisting again that his skull was too
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: small for his brains. The hill had gone steeper, the
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: chalky road blazed like magnesium light, and his front wheel
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: began an apparent, incurable squeaking. He felt as a man
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: from Myers would feel, if he were suddenly transferred to
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: this planet, about three times as heavy as he wont
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: to feel. The two black figures had vanished over the
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: forehead of the hill. The tracks'll be all right, said
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: mister hoopdriver. That was a comforting reflection. It not only
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: justified a slow progress up the hill, but at the crest,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: a sprawl on the turf beside the road to contemplate
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: the Wheeld from the south. In a matter of two
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: days he had crossed that spacious valley, with its frozen
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: surge of green hills, its little villages and townships here
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and there, its copses and cornfields, its ponds and streams
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: like jewelry of diamonds and silver glittering in the sun.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: The North Downs were hidden far away beyond the Weldon Heights,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: down below the little village of Calking, and half way
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: up the hill a mile perhaps to the right, hung
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: a flock of sheep grazing together. Overhead, an anxious puet
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: circled against the blue, and every now and then emitted
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: its feeble cry. Up Here, the heat was tempered by
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: a pleasant breeze. Mister Hoopdriver was possessed by an unreasonable contentment.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: He let himself a cigarette and lounged more comfortably. Surely,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: the Sussex Ale is made of the waters of Laithe,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: and of poppies and pleasant dreams. Drowsiness coiled insiduously about him.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: He awoke with a guilty start to find himself sprawling
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: prone to the turf, with his cap over one eye.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: He sat up rubbed his eyes and realized that he
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: had slept. His head was still a trifle heavy and
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: the chaise. He jumped to his feet and stooped to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: pick up his overturned machine. He whipped out his watch
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: and saw that it was past two o'clock. Lord love
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: us fancy that. But the tracks'll be all right, said
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: mister hoopdriver, wheeling his machine back to the chalky road.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: I must scorch till I overtake them. He mounted and
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: rode as rapidly as the heat and a lingering lassitude permitted.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Now and then he had to dismount to examine the
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: surface where the road forked. He enjoyed that, rather track him,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: he said out bowed, and decided, in the privacy of
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: his own mind that he had a wonderful instinct for spore.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: So he came past Goodwood Station and Lavend and approached
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Chichester towards four o'clock, and then came a terrible thing.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: In places the road became hard, in places where the
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: crowded indentations of a recent flock of sheep, and at
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: last in the throat of the town, cobbles and the
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: stony streets branching east west, north and south at the
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: stone cross, under the shadow of the cathedral, the tracks vanished.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Oh crikee, said mister hoopdriver, dismounting in dismay and standing
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: agape dropped anything, said an inhabitant at the curb. Yes,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: said mister hoopdriver, I've lost the spoor, and walked upon
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: his way, leaving the inhabitant marveling what part of a
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: bicycle a spoor might be. Mister hoopdriver, abandoning tracking, began
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: asking people if they had seen a young lady in
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: gray on a bicycle. Six casual people hadn't, and he
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: began to feel the inquiry was conspicuous and desisted. But
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: what was to be done? Hoopdriver was hot, tired and hungry,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: and full of the first gnawings of a monstrous remorse.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: He decided to get himself some tea and meat, and
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: in the Royal George he meditated over the business in
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: a melancholy frame. Enough they had passed out of his
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: world vanished, and all his wonderful dreams of some vague
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: crucial interference collapsed like a castle of cards. What a
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: fool he had been not to stick to them Like
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: a leech. He might have thought, But there what was
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the good of that sort of thing? Now he thought
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: of her tears, of her helplessness, of the bearing of
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: the other man in brown, and his wrath and disappointment
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: surging higher. What can I do, said mister Hoopdriver aloud,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: bringing his fist down beside the teapot. What would Sherlock
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Holmes have done? Perhaps, after all, there might be such
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: things as clues in the world, albeit the age of
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: miracles was past. But to look for a clue in
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: this intricate network of cobbled streets, to examine every muddy interstice,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: there was a chance by looking about an inquiry at
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: various inns. Upon that he began. But of course they
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: might have ridden straight through, and scarcely a soul have
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: marked them. And then came a positively brilliant idea, How
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: many ways are there out of Chichester, said mister Hoopdriver.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: It was really equal to Sherlock Holmes, that if they've
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: made tracks, I shall find those tracks. If not, they're
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: in the town. He was then in the East Street,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: and he started at once to make the circuit of
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: the place, discovering incidentally that Chichester is a walled city.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: In passing he made inquiries at the Black Swan, the Crown,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: and the Red Lion Hotel. At six o'clock in the evening,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: he was walking downcast intent as one who had dropped
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: money along the road towards Bognor, kicking up the dust
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: with the shoes and fretting with disappointed pugnancy. A thwarted,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: crestfallen hoopdriver. It was, as you may well imagine. And
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: then suddenly there jumped upon his attention a broad line
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: ribbed like a shilling, and close beside it one checkered
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: that even again split into two, found said mister hoopdriver,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and swung round on his heel at once, and back
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: to the Royal George Helter skelter for the bicycle they
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: were minding for him. The ostler thought he was confoundedly imperious,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: considering his machine. Chapter twenty one. At Bognor, the seductive
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: gentleman Bechamel had been working up to a crisis. He
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: had started upon this elopement in a vein of fine romance,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: immensely proud of his wickedness, and really as as much
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: in love as an artificial oversoul can be with Jesse.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: But either she was the profoundest of coquettes, or she
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: had not the slightest element of passion with a large
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: p in her composition. It warred with all his ideas
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: of himself and the feminine mind to think that under
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: their flattering circumstances she really could be so vitally deficient.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: He found her persistent coolness, her more or less evident,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: couldtempt for himself exasperating in the highest degree. He put
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: it to himself that she was enough to provoke a saint,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: and tried to think that was piquante and enjoyable. But
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: the blisters on his vanity asserted themselves. The fact is
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: he was under this standing irritation getting down to the
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: natural man in himself for once, and the natural man
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: in himself, in spite of Oxford and junior reviewers Club,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: was a paleolithic creature of simple tastes and violent methods.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: I'll be level with you, yet ran like a plow
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: through the soil of his thought. Then, this infernal detective
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Bechamel had told his wife he was going to Davos
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: to see Carter to that he had fancied she was reconciled.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: But how she would take. This exploit was entirely problematic.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: She was a woman of peculiar moral views, and she
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: measured marital infidelity largely by its proximity to herself, out
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: of her sight, and more particularly out of the sight
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: of the other women of her sect. Vice of the
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: recognized description was perhaps permissible to those contemptible weaklings men,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: but this was evil on high roads. She was bound
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: to make a fuss, and these fusses invariably took the
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: final form of a tightness of money for Bechamel, albeit,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: and he felt it was heroic of him to resolve,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: so it was worth doing. If it was to be done.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: His imagination worked on a kind of matronly valkyrie, and
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: the noise of pursuit and vengeance was in the air.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: The idol still had the front of the stage that
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: a cursed detective, it seemed, had been thrown off the scent,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: and that at any rate gave a knight's respite. But
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: things must be brought to an issue forthwith but eight
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: o'clock in the evening, in a little dining room in
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the Viquana Hotel, Bognor, the crisis had come, and Jessie
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: flushed and angery in the face, and with her heart sinking,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: faced him again for her last struggle with him. He
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: had tricked her, this time effectually, and luck had been
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: on his side. She was booked as Missus Beaumont, save
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: for her refusal to enter their room and her eccentricity
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: of eating with unwashed hands. She had so far kept
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: up with the appearances of things before the waiter, but
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: the dinner was grim enough. Now. In turn, she appealed
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: to his better nature and made extravagant statements of her
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: plans to fool him. He was white and vicious by
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: this time, and his anger quivered through his pose of
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: brilliant wickedness. I will go to the station, she said,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: I will go back. The last train for Anywhere leaves
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: at seven forty two. I will appeal to the police.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: You don't know them. I will tell these hotel people.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: They will turn you out of the doors. You're in
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: such a thoroughly false position now. They don't understand unconventionality
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: down here, she stamped her foot. If I wander about
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: the streets all night, she said, you who have never
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: been out alone after dusk, do you know what the
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: streets of a charming little holiday resort are like, I
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: don't care, she said, I can go to the clergyman here.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: He is a charming man, unmarried, and men are really
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: more alike than you think. And anyhow, well, how can
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: you explain the last two nights to any one? Now?
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: The mischief is done? Jesse, you curt, she said, and
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: suddenly put her hand to her breast. He thought she
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: meant to faint, but she stood with the color gone
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: from her face. No, he said, I love you, Love,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: She said, yes, love. There are ways, Yet, she said,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: after a pause, not for you. You are too full
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: of life and hope. Yet, for what is it? Not
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: the dark arch nor the black flowing river. Don't you
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: think of it? You'll only shirk it when the moment comes,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: and turn it all into comedy. She turned round abruptly
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: from him, and stood looking out across the pard at
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the shining sea, over which the afterglow of day fled
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: before the rising moon. He maintained his attitude. The blinds
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: were still up, for she had told the waiter not
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: to draw them. There was silence for some moments. At last,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: he spoke, in as persuasive a voice as he could summon.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Take it sensibly, Jesse. Why should we who have so
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: much in common quarrel into melodrama? I swear I love you.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: You are all that is bright and desirable to me.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: I am stronger than you, older man to your woman,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: to find you too conventional? She looked at him over
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: her shoulder, and he noticed what with a twin of delight,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: how her little chin came out beneath the curve of
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: her cheek. Man, she said, man, to my woman, do
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: men lie? Would a man uses five and thirty years
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: experience to outwit a girl of seventeen? Man to my woman, indeed,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: that surely is the last insult. Your repartee is admirable, Jesse,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: I should say, they do though all that and more
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: also when their hearts were set on such a girl
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: as yourself. Why should you be so difficult to me?
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Here am I, with my reputation, my career at your feet.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Look here, Jesse, on my honor, I will marry you.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: God forbid. She said so promptly that she never learned
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: he had a wife. Even then. It occurred to him
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: then for the first time, in the flash of her retort,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: that she did not know he was married. Tis only
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: a pernuptial settlement, he said. Following that hint, he paused,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: you must be sensible the things you are doing. Come
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: out on the beach now. The beach here is splendid,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: and the moon soon will be high. I won't, she said,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: stamping her foot. Well, well, oh, leave me alone, let
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: me think, think, he said, if you want to, it's
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: your cry always. But you can't save yourself by thinking.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: My dear girl, you can't save yourself any any way. Now,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: if saving it is this is Paris money. Oh go,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: go very well, I will go. I will go and
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: smoke a cigar and think of you, dear. But do
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: you think I should do all this? If I did
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: not care? Go, she whispered, Without glancing round. She continued
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: to stare out of the window. He stood looking at
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: her for a moment, with strange light in his eyes.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: He made a step towards her. I have you, he said,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: You were mine, not old caught, but to mine. He
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: would have gone up to her and laid his hand
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: upon her, but he did not dare to do that yet.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I have you in my hand, he said, in my power.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Do you hear power? She remained impassive. He stared at
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: her for half a minute, and then, with a superb
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: gesture that was lost upon her, went to the door,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: surely the instinctive abasement of her sex. Before strength was
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: upon his side, he told himself the battle was won.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: She heard the handle move and the catch click as
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the door closed behind him, Chapter twenty two. And now
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: without in the twilight, behold mister Hoopdriver. His cheeks hot,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: his eye bright, his brain is in a tumult. The nervous,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: obscuous Hoopdriver to whom I introduced you some days since,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: has undergone a wonderful change. Ever since he had lost
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: that spore in Chichester, he had been tormented by the
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: most horrible visions of the shameful insults that may be happening.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: The strangeness of new surrounding has been working to strip
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: off the habitual servile from him. Here was moonlight rising
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: over the memory of a red sunset, dark shadows and
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: glowing orange lamps, beauty somewhere, mischief curiously wrapped away from him,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: tangible wrong in a brown suit, and an unpleasant face
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: floating him. Mister Hoopdriver, for the time was in the
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: world of romance, and a knight errantree, divinely forgetful of
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: his social position or hers, forgetting too, for the time,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: any of the wretched, timidities that had tied him long
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: since behind the counter of his proper place. He was
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: angry and adventurous. It was all about him, this vivid
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: drama he had fallen into, and it was eluding him.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: He was far too grimly in earnest to pick up
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: that lost thread and make a play of it. Now
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: the man was living. He did not pose when he
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: alighted at the coffee tavern, even nor when he made
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: his hasty meal. As Bechamel crossed from the Vicuan towards
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: the esplanade, hoopdriver, disappointed and exasperated, came hurrying round the
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: corner from the Temperance Hotel. At the sight of Bechamel,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: his heart jumped, and the tension of his angry suspense
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: exploded into rather than gave place to an excited activity
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: of mind. They were at the Vicuna, and she was
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: there now alone. It was the occasion he sought, but
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: he would give chance, no chance against him. He went
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: back round the corner, sat down on the seat, and
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: watched Bechamel recede into the dimness up the esplanade before
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: he got up and walked into the hotel entrance. A
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: lady cyclist and gray he asked for and followed boldly
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: on the waiter's heels. The door of the dining room
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: was opening before he felt calm, and then suddenly he
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: was nearly minded to turn and run for it, and
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: his features seemed to him to be convulsed. She turned
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: with a start and looked at him with something between
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: terror and hope in her eyes. Can I have a
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: few words with you alone, said mister hoopdriver, controlling his
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: breath with difficulty. She hesitated, then motioned the waiter to withdraw.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Mister Hoopdriver watched the door shut. He had intended to
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: step out into the middle of the room, fold his
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: arms and say you were in trouble. I am a friend,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: trust me, instead of which he stood panting, and then
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: spoke with sudden familiarity, hastily, guiltily, Look here, I don't
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: know what the juice is up, but I think there's
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: something wrong. Excuse my intruding. If it isn't so, I'll
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: do anything you like to help you out of this
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: scrape you're in. That's my meaning I believe what can
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: I do? I would do anything to help you. Her
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: brow puckered as she watched him make with infinite emotion
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: this remarkable speech you, she said. She was tumultuously weighing
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the possibilities in her mind, and he had scarcely ceased.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: When she had made her resolve, she stepped a pace forward.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: You are a gentleman, she said, Yes, said mister hoopdriver,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Can I trust you? She did not wait for his assurance.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: I must leave this hotel at once. Come here. She
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: took his arm and led him to the window. You
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: can just see the gate. It is still open. Through
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: that are our bicycle Go down, Get them out, and
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: I will come down to you. Dare you get out
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: the bicycles into the road both mine alone is no
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: good at once? Dare you which way? Go out by
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: the front door and round. I will follow in one minute, right,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: said mister hoopdriver, and went yet to get those bicycles.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Had he been told to go out and kill Bechamel,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: he would have done it. His head was a maelstrom.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Now he walked out of the hotel along the front
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: and into the big, black shadowed coach yard. He looked round.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: There were no bicycles visible. Then a man emerged from
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: the dark, a short man in a short, black, shiny jacket.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver was caught. He made no attempt to turn and
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: run for it. I've been giving your machines a wipe over, sir,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: said the man, recognizing the suit and touching his cap.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver's intelligence now was a soaring eagle. He swooped on
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: the situation at once. That's right, he said, and added
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: before the pause became marked, where is mine? I want
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: to look at the chain. The man led him into
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: an open shed and went fumbling for a lantern. Hoopdriver
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: moved the lady's machine out of his way to the door,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: and then laid hands on the man's machine and wheeled
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: it out of the shed into the yard. The gate
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: stood open, and beyond was the pale road and a
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: clump of trees. Back in the twilight. He stooped and
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: examined the chain with trembling fingers. How is it to
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: be done? Something behind the gate seemed to flutter. The
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: man must be got rid of anyhow, I say, said Hoopdriver,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: with an inspiration. Can you get me a screwdriver? The
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: man simply walked across the shed, opened and shut a box,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: and came up to the kneeling Hoopdriver with a screw
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: driver in his hand. Hoopdriver felt himself a lost man.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: He took the screwdriver with a rapid thanks and continentally
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: had another inspiration, I say, he said again, Well this
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: is myles too big. The man lit the lantern, brought
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: it up to mister Hoopdriver and put it down on
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: the ground. Want a smaller screwdriver, he said. Hoopdriver had
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: his handkerchief out and sneezed promptly at you. It is
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: the orthodox thing you'd when you wish to avoid recognition.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: As small as you have, he said, out of his
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: pocket handkerchief. I ain't got none smaller than that, said
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: the ostler. Won't do really, said Hoopdriver, still wallowing in
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: his handkerchief. I'll see what they got in the house
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: if you like, sir, said the man. If you would,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: said Hoopdriver, And as the man's heavily nailed boots went
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: clattering down the yard, Hoopdriver stood up, took a noiseless
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: step to the lady's machine, laid trembling hands on its handle,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: and saddle and prepared for a rush. The scullery door
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: opened momentarily and sent a beam of warm yellow light up.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: The road shut again behind the man, and forthwith hoopdriver
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: rushed the machines toward the gate. A dark gray form
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: came fluttering to meet him. Give me this, she said,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: and bring yours. He passed the thing to her, touched
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: her hand in the darkness, ran back, seized Bechamel's machine
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: and followed the yellow light of the scullery door suddenly
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: flashed upon the cobbles again. It was too late now
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: to do anything but escape. He heard the ostler shout
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: behind him and came into the road. She was up
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: and dim already. He got into the saddle without a blunder.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: In a moment, the ostler was in the gateway with
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: a full throated hi, sir, that ain't allowed. An hoopdriver
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: was overtaking the young lady in gray. For some moments,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: the earth seemed alive with shouts of stop em and
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: the shadows with ambuscades of police. The road swept round,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: and they were riding out of sight of the hotel
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: and behind dark hedges, side by side. She was weeping
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: with excitement, as he overtook her. Brave, she said, brave,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: and he ceased to feel like a hunted thief. He
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: looked Dover's shoulder and about him, and saw that they
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: were already out of Bognor, for the Vicuna stands at
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: the very westernmost extremity of the seafront, and riding on
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: a fair wide road. End of Part seven.