He turned away with decision, and Billy reviling him for a yellow dog followed. Labar waited till their voices had died away. Then he got to the ground and began to pick his way at leisure through the copse. He came at length to a ride, such as is cut in these places for the convenience of sportsmen, and this rendered his progress easier. So, following this, he reached another strip of the park, and climbing a fence, found his way into a wheatfield.

He had but the remotest idea of the way in which he was travelling. But sooner or later he must come to a road of some sort, and, thus to the resources of civilisation, which were represented in his mind at the moment by one thing⁠—a telephone. If he could get to a telephone much might be done before the day was out.

So at last he reached a country lane and, turning by pure guess work to his right, was brought at last to a superior road two minutes before a light car came speeding from the distance. He stepped to the centre of the road with arms outstretched, and as the car drew up a big-shouldered young man with a square chin peered suspiciously at him.