Then it shut, and looking back I saw that my idiot had been absorbed into the dwelling of his Gertrud.

I waited no longer, but sent the car forward at its best speed.
Five minutes later the infernal thing began to give trouble--a nut loose in the antiquated steering-gear.

I unhooked a lamp, examined it, and put the mischief right, but I was a quarter of an hour doing it.
The highway ran now in a thick forest and I noticed branches going off now and then to the right.

I was just thinking of turning up one of them, for I had no anxiety to visit Schwandorf, when I heard behind me the sound of a great car driven furiously.
I drew in to the right side--thank goodness I remembered the rule of the road--and proceeded decorously, wondering what was going to happen.
I could hear the brakes being clamped on and the car slowing down.
Suddenly a big grey bonnet slipped past me and as I turned my head I heard a familiar voice.
It was Stumm, looking like something that has been run over.

He had his jaw in a sling, so that I wondered if I had broken it, and his eyes were beautifully bunged up.