I could not catch the answer, but a few minutes later, I heard the cab-door shut and knew that Mr. Turton and Augustus, thanks to Jacintha, had been driven off in the direction of Barton, five and a half miles distant. So that they would have eleven miles to drive before they returned to this spot, leaving me at least two hours (reckoning for the search at Barton and so forth) to make good my escape.
In the meantime the motor-car still continued to make strange noises, and every now and then its owner gave vent to curious exclamations.
'Don't you think,' suggested Jacintha, 'it would be best to try to get as far as the farrier's we passed opposite the footpath to Barton?'
'Upon my word, I almost think it would!' was the answer. 'Come, suppose you take your seat.'
'Oh!' cried Jacintha, 'but if you don't mind I think I would sooner walk--it is not far, you know.'
So a few moments later the motor-car made stranger noises than ever and moved away, evidently with difficulty, and when it had gone a little distance Jacintha came to the hedge again.
'It's all right now,' she cried, and rising I came to the edge of the field.
'I am most awfully obliged to you,' I said.
'What made you run away?' she asked eagerly.
'I was not going to stand all that,' I answered.
'I don't think I had better stay,' I said. 'Because they might change their minds and come back.'
'I don't think they will,' she answered. 'Because I heard him tell the driver to go to Barton. What shall you do?' she asked.
'I shall go to the left as they have gone to the right.'
'I wish we could give you a lift,' she cried.
'You see,' she explained, 'I really live in London, only I am staying now with my uncle and aunt--I always come to stay with them in the summer.'
'Why,' she returned, 'we have come miles and miles this morning. My uncle has just bought a motor-car--a beauty. We started quite early--soon after seven, and it began to rain just before, so my aunt wouldn't come. We were going to Polehampton, and we have broken down lots of times, though we get along splendidly in between.'
'I slept at Polehampton last night,' I said.
'Why didn't you take the train?' inquired Jacintha.
'You see I had no money,' I explained. 'I sold my watch and chain, but a tramp robbed me.'