I'd be better outside, watching for the police....

Are you ready, sir ?" Dickson not without difficulty perched himself astride the luggage carrier, firmly grasping the rider round the middle.

The machine started, but it was evidently in a bad way, for it made poor going till the descent towards the main Auchenlochan road.

On the slope it warmed up and they crossed the Garple bridge at a fair pace.

There was to be no pleasant April twilight, for the stormy sky had already made dusk, and in a very little the dark would fall.