At 7.20. Rex was through again to the Duke, gabbling out the idiotic way in which he had allowed Tanith to fool him and leave him stranded in Savernake Forest.
At 7.22. De Richleau had heard all he had to tell and was ordering him to return to Hungerford as best he could, there to await instructions at The Bear.
At 7.25. Tanith was out of the Forest and on a good road again, some five miles south-east of Marlborough, slowing down to consult her map.
At 7.26. The Duke was through to Scotland Yard.
At 7.28. Rex was loping along at a steady trot through the gathering darkness, praying that a car would appear from which he could ask a lift.
At 7.30. De Richleau was speaking to the Assistant Commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, a personal friend of his. ‘It’s not the car that matters,’ he said, ‘but the documents which are in it. Their immediate recovery is of vital importance to me and I should consider it a great personal favour if any reports which come in may be sent at once to the Police Station at Newbury.’
At 7.32. Tanith was speeding south towards Tidworth, having decided that to go round Salisbury Plain via Amesbury would save her time on account of the better roads.
At 7.38. Scotland Yard was issuing the following communiqué by wireless: ‘All stations. Stolen. A blue touring Rolls, 1934 model. Number OA 1217. Owner, Duke de Richleau. Last seen in Savernake Forest going south-east at 19 hours 15, but reported making for Marlborough. Driven by woman. Age twenty-three, attractive appearance—tall, slim, fair hair, pale face, large hazel eyes, wearing light green summer costume and small hat. Particulars required by Special Department. Urgent. Reports to Newbury.’
At 7.42. De Richleau received a telephone call at Pangbourne. ‘Speakin’ fer Mister Clutterbuck,’ said the voice, ‘bin tryin’ ter get yer this lars’ arf hour, sir. The green Daimler passed through Camberley goin’ south just arter seven o’clock.’
At 7.44 Tanith was running past the military camp at Tidworth still going south.
At 7.45. Rex was buying a second-hand bicycle for cash at three times its value from a belated farm-labourer.
At 7.48. The Duke received another call. ‘I have a special from Mr Clutterbuck,’ said a new voice. ‘The Yellow Sports Sunbeam passed Devizes going south at 7.42.’
At 7.49. Tanith reached the Andover-Amesbury road and turned west along it.
At 7.54. De Richleau climbed into his Hispano. ‘My night glasses–thank you,’ he said as he took a heavy pair of binoculars from Max. ‘Any messages which come in for me up to 8.25 are to be relayed to the police at Newbury, after that to Mr Van Ryn at the Bear Inn, Hungerford, up till 8.40, and from then on to the police at Newbury again.’
At 7.55. Tanith was approaching a small cross-roads on the outskirts of Amesbury. A Police-Sergeant who had left the station ten minutes earlier spotted the number of her car, and stepping out into the road called on her to halt. She swerved violently, missing him by inches, but managed to swing the car into the by-road leading north.
At 7.56. Rex was pedalling furiously along the road to Hungerford with all the strength of his muscular legs.
At 7.58. Tanith, livid with rage that Rex should have put the police on to her as though she were a common car thief, had spotted another policeman near the bridge in Bulford village. Not daring to risk his holding her up in the narrow street, she switched up another side-road leading north-east.
At 7.59. The Amesbury Police-Sergeant dropped off a lorry beside the constable on duty at the main cross-roads of the town and warned him to watch out for a Blue Rolls, number OA 1217, recklessly driven by a young woman who was wanted by the Yard.
At 8.01. Tanith had slowed down and was wondering desperately if she dared risk another attempt to pass through Amesbury. Deciding against it she ran on, winding in and out through the narrow lanes, to the northeastward.
At 8.02. Rex had abandoned his bicycle outside the old Almshouses at Froxfield and was begging a lift from the owner of a rickety Ford who was starting into Hungerford.
At 8.03. The Amesbury Police-Sergeant was reporting to Newbury the appearance of the ‘wanted’ Rolls.
At 8.04. Tanith pulled up, hopelessly lost in a tangle of twisting lanes.
At 8.06. De Richleau swung his Hispano on to the main Bath road. His cigar tip glowed red in the twilight as he sank his chin into the collar of his coat and settled down to draw every ounce out of the great powerful car.
At 8.08. Tanith had discovered her whereabouts on the map and found that she had been heading back towards the Andover road.
At 8.09. The Amesbury Police-Sergeant was warning the authorities at Andover to keep a look-out for the stolen car in case it headed back in that direction.
At 8.10. Tanith had turned up a rough track leading north through some woods in the hope that it would enable her to get past the Military Camp at Tidworth without going through it.
At 8.12. Rex was hurrying into The Bear inn at Hungerford.
At 8.14. Tanith was stuck again, the track having come to an abrupt end at a group of farm buildings.
At 8.17. The Duke was hurtling along the straight, about five miles east of Newbury.
At 8.19. Tanith was back at the entrance of the track and turning into a lane that led due east.
At 8.20. The Amesbury Police-Sergeant left the station again. He had completed his work of warning Salisbury, Devizes, Warminster and Winchester to watch for the stolen Rolls.
At 8.21. Tanith came out on the main Salisbury-Marlborough road and, realising that there was nothing for it but to chance being held up at Tidworth, turned north.
At 8.22. Rex had sunk his second tankard of good Berkshire ale and took up his position in the doorway of The Bear to watch for the Duke.
At 8.23. Tanith, possessed now, it seemed, by some inhuman glee, chortled with laughter as a Military Policeman leapt from the road to let her flash past the entrance of Tidworth Camp.
At 8.24. De Richleau entered Newbury Police Station and learned that the Blue Rolls had been sighted in Amesbury half an hour earlier.
At 8.25. Tanith had pulled up, a mile north of Tidworth, and was studying her map again. She decided that her only hope of reaching the secret rendezvous now lay in taking the by-roads across the northern end of Salisbury Plain.
At 8.26. The Duke was reading two messages which had been handed to him by the Newbury Police. One said: ‘Green Daimler passed through Basingstoke going west at 7.25. Max per Clutterbuck,’ and the other, ‘Green Daimler passed through Andover going west at 8.09. Max per Clutterbuck.’ He nodded, quickly summing up the position to himself. ‘Green is heading west through Amesbury by now, and Blue was seen making in the same direction, while Yellow took the other route and is coming south from Devizes–most satisfactory so far.’ He then turned to the Station Sergeant: ‘I should be most grateful if you would have any further messages which may come for me relayed to Amesbury. Thank you–Good night.’
At 8.27. Tanith had reached a cross-road two miles north of Tidworth and turning west took a dreary wind-swept road which crosses one of the most desolate parts of the Plain. Dusk had come and with it an overwhelming feeling that whatever happened she must be present at the meeting. The fact that she was about seventeen miles farther from her destination than she had been at Amesbury did not depress her, for she had misled Rex as to the vital necessity of her being there by sunset, and the actual Sabbat did not begin until midnight.
At 8.32. Rex was taking a message over the telephone of The Bear at Hungerford.
At 8.35. Tanith was passing the Aerodrome at Upavon, and forced to slow down owing to the curving nature of the road ahead.
At 8.37. De Richleau’s Hispano roared into Hungerford, and Rex, who had resumed his position in the doorway of The Bear, ran out to meet it. ‘Any messages?’ the Duke asked as he scrambled in.
‘Yep, Max called me. A bird named Clutterbuck says a Yellow Sunbeam passed through Westbury heading south at five minutes past eight.’
‘Good,’ nodded the Duke, who already had the car in motion again.
At 8.38. Tanith was free of the twisting patch of road by Upavon and out on the straight across the naked Plain once more. If only she could keep clear of the police, she felt that she would be able to reach the meeting-place in another forty-five minutes. A wild, unnatural exaltation drove her on as the Blue Rolls ate up the miles towards the west.
At 8.39. Rex was asking: ‘What is all this about a Yellow Sunbeam anyway? It was a Blue Rolls I got stung for.’ And the Duke replied, with his grey eyes twinkling: ‘Don’t worry about the Rolls. The police saw your young friend with it in Amesbury a little after eight. They will catch her for us you may be certain.’
At 8.40. The police at Newbury were relaying a message from Max for the Duke to their colleagues at Amesbury.
At 8.41. De Richleau was saying: ‘Don’t be a fool, Rex. I only said that I could not call in the police unless these people committed some definite breach of the law. Car stealing is a crime, so I have been able to utilise them in this one instance—that’s all.’
At 8.44. Two traffic policemen on a motor-cycle combination, which had set out from Devizes a quarter of an hour before, spotted the back number-plate of Blue Rolls number OA 1217 as it switched to the left at a fork road where they were stationed, but Tanith had caught sight of them, and her headlights streaked away, cutting a lane through the darkness to the south-westward.
At 8.45. The Hispano was rocking from side to side as it flew round the bends of the twisting road south-west of Hungerford. The Duke had heard Rex’s account of the way Tanith had tricked him but refused to enlighten him about the Yellow Sunbeam. ‘No, no,’ he said impatiently. ‘I want to hear every single thing you learned from the girl–I’ll tell you my end later.’
At 8.46. The traffic policemen had their machine going all out and were in full cry after the recklessly driven Rolls.
At 8.47. The Police at Newbury were relaying a second message from Max for the Duke to their colleagues at Amesbury.
At 8.48. Tanith saw the lights of Easterton village looming up in the distance across the treeless grassland as she hurtled south-westward in the Rolls.
At 8.49. The traffic policeman in the side-car said: ‘Steady, Bill, we’ll get her in a minute.’
At 8.50. The Hispano had passed the cross-roads nine miles south-west of Hungerford and come out on to the straight. De Richleau had now heard everything of importance which Rex had to tell and replied abruptly to his renewed questioning: ‘For God’s sake don’t pester me now. It’s no easy matter to keep this thing on the road when we’re doing eighty most of the time.’
At 8.51. Tanith clutched desperately at the wheel of the Rolls as with screaming tyres it shot round the corner of the village street. The police siren in her ears shrilled insistently for her to halt. She took another bend practically on two wheels, glimpsed the darkness of the open country again for a second then, with a rending, splintering crash, the off-side mudguards tore down a length of wooden palings. The car swerved violently, dashed up a steep bank then down again, rocking and plunging, until it came to rest, with a sickening thud, against the back of a big barn.
At 9.08. The Duke, with Rex beside him, entered Amesbury Police Station and the two messages which had been ‘phoned through from Newbury were handed to him. The first read: ‘Green Daimler passed through Amesbury going west at 8.15,’ and the second, ‘Yellow Sunbeam halted Chilbury 8.22.’ Both were signed ‘Max per Clutterbuck.’
As De Richleau slipped them into his pocket an Inspector came out of an inner room. ‘We’ve got your car, sir,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Heard the news only this minute. Two officers spotted the young woman at the roads south of Devizes and gave chase. She made a mucker of that bad bend in Easterton village. Ran it through a garden and up a steep bank.’
‘Is she hurt?’ asked Rex anxiously.
‘No, sir, can’t be. Not enough to prevent her hopping out and running for it. I reckon it was that bank that saved her and the car too, for I gather it’s not damaged anything to speak of.’
‘Has she been caught?’ inquired the Duke.
‘Not yet, sir, but I expect she will be before morning.’
As De Richleau nodded his thanks, and spread out a map to find the village of Chilbury, the desk telephone shrilled. The constable who answered it scribbled rapidly on a pad and then passed the paper over to him. ‘Here’s another message for you, sir.’
Rex glanced over the Duke’s shoulder and read, ‘Green Daimler halted Chilbury 8.30. Other cars parked in vicinity and more arriving. Will await you cross-roads half a mile south of village. Clutterbuck.’
De Richleau looked up and gave a low chuckle. ‘Got them!’ he exclaimed. ‘Now we can talk.’
At 9.14. They were back in the car.