Page:The Redemption of Anthony (1911).djvu/83

 "Oh, no; I quite like Mrs. Crompton, don't you? She isn't as bad as she acts."

"None of us are—that's the saving grace."

"Let's go faster; I hear the Devil's footsteps."

"It's dangerous," he warned, letting out the machine a little.

"Faster!" she laughed. "I feel his breath on my neck."

He laughed and changed the speed recklessly to please her. He wanted to feel her close beside him, and to hear the childish laugh of delight.

"Faster! I hear his voice in my ear!"

The machine leaped at his hand like a living thing, and then the inevitable happened. Out into the road a baby toddled from a farmyard. Drake threw on the brake, called out, and tried to turn out. It was so sudden an onslaught that the machine did not respond, and the next thing he knew he lay beside a fence, a cold stream trickling down his face. Something near him groaned, and he sat up quickly and crawled