Balmayne danced down the lane with impotent fury. Despite her peril and the fear that was in her heart, Hetty smiled. Here was a daring and audacious rascal engaged in some desperate and, no doubt, cunning scheme who was utterly baffled by a mere girl and a hairpin.

Hetty checked the smile, for that might have grown hysterical. She had to brace herself to the effort, an easier task seeing that Gordon Bruce was uppermost in her mind. For him she would have dared and done anything. The woman who was at the bottom of this thing was his deadly enemy. To gain her secrets must help in Gordon\'s final victory.

Balmayne knelt down there with one of the lamps in his hand. His face was not good to look upon. Leona Lalage watched him eagerly.

"Is it a very bad puncture?" she asked.

"It isn\'t a puncture at all," Balmayne snarled, "at least not an accidental one. Some mischievous fiend must have passed down the lane just now and done this for pure wickedness. There are two long slashes in the tyres."

"And the mending will be a matter of time?"

"Rather. An expert couldn\'t do it under an hour. Both those tyres will have to come off. Now what are we to do?"

The Countess clasped her hands together in hopeless rage.

"If I only had that ruffian here!" she said. Her voice was low, she strode backwards and forwards like an angry wolf. "Oh, if I only had him here! I should like you to hold him down so that I----"

"drop it," Balmayne said rudely. "What\'s the good of that theatrical nonsense? If something is not done at once our plans are utterly ruined. Don\'t stand there like a tragedy actress, but suggest something."

"But what can I suggest? This thing has taken me utterly by surprise. The only thing is to carry that thing back into the street and lay him down where you found him. A policeman saw him leave the house. It will be thought that he had a fit in the street, and we shall not be suspected."

"And meanwhile the policeman on the beat has been at least twice past the spot where the body ought to be," Balmayne sneered. "People in fits don\'t get out of the way and then come back again."

"True," the Countess exclaimed. "I had not thought of that. Wheel your motor into the courtyard of the Corner House before a policeman comes this way, and carry him back into the house."

There was nothing else to do, and Balmayne complied, muttering. The autocar was disposed of, and Balmayne, breathless and dripping under the weight of his burden, staggered............