Page:Restless Earth.djvu/119

Harley spoke, he was smiling inwardly at the recollection of a happy evening—one of many—when he had parked his cargo of suffering men just within the fringe of a copse while he had made merry with little Minette. “Half-a-minute” he had called her. He was wondering where she was now. Grown old and fat, most likely, and married to a farmer who gave her second place in his heart to the heap of manure in the front-garden. “Half-a-minute.” The “blightys” were not to know that it was a girl’s name and not a promise. They———

“What are we waiting for this time?”

Roy started.

“Dreaming,” he admitted, noting with surprise that nothing prevented him from proceeding. “Just about asleep, I suppose. These all-night tours are pretty wearing.”

He yawned widely and loudly as he engaged the gears and let in the clutch. Harley and the elderly man yawned also, although sleep had no place in their thoughts or desires.

The car had proceeded only a few yards when Harley clutched Roy’s arm.

“Pull up!” he ordered sharply.

The car came to a sudden stand, jerking a frightened ejaculation from the elder woman and causing her daughter to stare wildly.

Harley opened the door by his side with a hurried movement and sprang into the road. For a moment it seemed that he would set out afoot in pursuit of the disappearing ambulance; then, as it rounded a a corner and vanished he shook his head in a confused manner and climbed back into the car slowly.

Roy, who had watched this manœuvre in surprise, stared enquiringly as Harley seated himself with a sigh and pulled the door close.

“What is it, Mr. Harley?” he asked in concern.

“Eh? Oh, nothing—nothing,” mumbled Harley, shuddering as though with cold, and wiping a sudden sweat from his forehead with his palm. “I merely