"I am coming," said the squire briefly. His hand went from Dick's shoulder to his arm and gave it a hard squeeze. "Confound you! What do you take me for?" he said.
Dick's hand came swiftly to his. "I take you for the best friend a man ever had, sir," he said.
Ten minutes later they went down the dripping avenue in the squire's little car. The drifting fog made an inky blackness of the night, and progress was very slow under the trees.
"We should be quicker walking," said Dick impatiently.
"It'll be better when we reach the open road," said Fielding, frowning at the darkness.
The light at the lodge-gates flung a wide glare through the mist, and he steered for it with more assurance. They passed through and turned into the road.
And here the squire pulled up with a jerk, for immediately in front of them another light shone.
"It's another car," said Dick and jumped out. "Hullo, there! Anything the matter?" he called.
"Damnation, yes!" answered a voice. "I've run into this infernal wall and damaged my radiator. Lost my mascot, too, damn it! Sort of thing that always happens when you're in a hurry."
He was standing almost touching the car, but he could not see the speaker who seemed to be bent and hunting for something on the ground.
A sound that was curiously like a chuckle answered him out of the darkness, but no reply came in words.
Dick stood motionless. "Saltash!" he said incredulously. "Is it Saltash?"
"Why shouldn't it be Saltash?" said a voice that laughed. "Thank you, Romeo? Come and help me out of this damn fix! Oh, I'm fed up with playing benevolent fool. It gives me indigestion. Curse this fog! Afraid I've knocked a few chips off your beastly wall. Ah! Here's the mascot! Now perhaps my infernal luck will turn! What are you keeping so quiet about? Aren't you pleased to see me? Not that you can--but that's a detail."
"Are you--alone?" Dick said, an odd tremor in his voice.
"Of course I'm alone! What did you expect? No, no, my Romeo, I may be a fool, but I'm not quite such a three-times-distilled imbecile as that amounts to. Have you got a gun there?"
"No!" Dick's voice sounded half-strangled, as though he fought against some oppression that threatened to overwhelm him. "What have you come back for? Tell me that!"