“Well,” said the doctor, “I can’t say that any of my patients would be likely to die in that time.”

“How fast is your car?”

“I suppose she could do seventy at a push.”

“That’s good. She can keep up with anything on the road?”

The doctor nodded. “Sure thing.”

“Then I’m going to ask you to take me along to a place called ‘Maid’s Retreat’⁠—or rather to the road outside the lodge gates. There will be a Rolls Royce somewhere in the vicinity, and I want to follow that wherever it goes⁠—if possible without giving the people in it an indication that we are trailing them. What is your name?”

“Ware. I’m one of the local medicos.”