Page:Rowland--The closing net.djvu/140

124 locking them up in an inner drawer, and putting the key in my pocket.

"I've got some business that may keep me out all day," said I to Gustave. "If M. Cuttynge comes up, tell him that I have just learned of something important, and ask him to make another rendezvous with M. Caldwell. If I have not returned by seven, don't wait."

Out I went and jumped into the car and rolled off, leaving Gustave to stare after me, disgusted that I should go without a mécanicien. My mind was working fast as I sped along. Plan after plan went through my head. It struck me that perhaps the best way would be to pass Chu-Chu when he was travelling fast and crowd him into the ditch. This would not be difficult with a big heavy car like mine; and in such an "accident" the driver is usually killed while the man beside him is apt to escape. If neither was injured, I could always go back and finish Chu-Chu with my pistol. Then I thought of even a better plan. Why not get on ahead, then lay my car across the road so that they would have to stop, and hold Chu-Chu up and go through him for the pearls? Once having got them, I could rush back to Paris, turn over the pearls and the gems to John, with instructions to give the latter to the police, and get out of the country as quick as possible. I did not believe that Ivan or Chu-Chu would follow me up if I went to America, though it was possible that Chu-Chu might.

Sounds as if I began to weaken as I went along, doesn't it? Well, perhaps I did. The odds against me were too awful heavy, and life is sweet, after all.