I'll take it back, and explain things." For a mile Tinker sent the car along at full speed.

Then he slowed down, and pulling up at every opening into the hills or down to the shore, sent a long coo-ee ringing down it.

No answer came back.

At the end of two miles his face was growing graver and graver, and its gravity was reflected in the faces of the three men.

At the end of two miles and a half he stopped the car, and said, "They can't have gone further than this." "Just too late," muttered Septimus Rainer; and they looked at one another with questioning eyes.
"Well, there's no time to be lost," said Sir Tancred.