Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/159

 east this driver speeded up his engine and started westward. She felt relieved at this movement, until she discovered through the falling rain another taxicab facing her farther down the block. The driver of this cab, the moment he caught sight of her, jumped from his seat. She at once divined his intention, and much as she dreaded a retreat from the direction of Broadway, she swung sharply about and started westward. By this time she was running.

Before she had taken a hundred steps she could hear the hum of the second taxicab and the chink of its loose tire-chains against the fender-wings.

That cab, she knew, was pursuing her. And she also knew, by this time, that the side-street which held them was practically deserted. Her one object now was to reach Eighth Avenue, where, if no patrolman happened in sight, there would at least be decent citizens enough to call on for protection. But the taxicab which had preceded her westward, she suddenly discovered, had already swung sharply about and drawn up close to the curb at the Avenue corner. And this first driver, like his confederate, had descended from his seat and was