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126 on deer. About half of the living creatures in the world prey on the other half. It's hard to see the use of a criminal, except to himself and others of his class, but it struck me that maybe Chu-Chu had run over the limit and that I was intended as an instrument to put a check on him. That was a cheerful way to look at it, anyway.

I passed through Pontoise and held on for Beauvais by the little route that Ivan's man had spoken of at the garage. It was a pity, I thought, that I could not have caught them up here, for there was nobody on the road. By this time I had my plan all made. I determined to pass Chu-Chu at high speed and literally crowd him off the road. This would be dangerous to me, of course, as it's a risky job to mix up the direction of a big car running at a high speed, but I would be prepared and ought to be able to stick to the track. As you know, these French roads are drained by ditches at least a foot deep and a foot wide, running off at right-angles and spaced only ten or a dozen metres apart. Shoved into one of those while running fast, Chu-Chu's chances were all for getting piled up. What happened after that would depend on circumstances. I gave up the idea of stopping him by laying my own car across the road. In the first place there was the danger that he might recognise me, even in my mask and ulster. Also, it was possible that somebody might come along and interfere with the rest of the game.

At Beauvais I struck the route nationale and hit up my speed, and in a few minutes the big six was tearing along like a comet. Very few people were