Of a
sudden his father's voice rose loud in apparent fury, and he cried in
Italian, "Spies! We're nothing of the kind!" and then in English,
"Bolt!"
In a flash the car was moving, and half a dozen soldiers sprang
forward, crying, "Stop! Stop!"
"It's running away!" screamed Tinker in Italian, and switched it on to
full speed.
It jerked forward; and the soldiers ran heavily after it.
"Hold it back! Hold it back!" screamed Tinker, and with the
unquestioning obedience of the perfectly disciplined man, a simple
young soldier caught hold of the back of the car, and threw all his
heart and strength into the effort to stop it, only to find himself
running fast. At sixty yards he was running faster and shouting
loudly. At eighty yards, he stopped shouting, let go, and fell down.
Tinker looked back, and saw him sitting up in the dust and shaking his
fist, while forty yards beyond him his fellow-soldiers danced
gesticulating in the middle of the road.
[Illustration: "Hold it back!" screamed Tinker.]
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TINKER MEETS HIS OLD NURSE
Tinker let the car rip on, the while he considered what he should do.
He was excited, determined, he accepted readily enough the
responsibility which had fallen upon him, but he was hardly happy.
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