He
could see no hope of rescuing Dorothy and Elsie by himself, even if he
caught the carriage; and since he reckoned that it would take his
father two or three hours to turn the Riviera upside down, and
extricate himself and Mr. Rainer from the extremely neat and effective
trap into which they had fallen, he could look for no help from them
till far into the night. For a while he suffered from the sense that
he had bitten off, or rather had had thrust into his mouth, more than
he could chew. Then of a sudden he saw that the really important
thing, the dogging the kidnappers, was in his power, and he regained
his cheerfulness.
He drove on the car at full speed for ten miles, and inquired of a
peasant walking beside a cart loaded with bags of grain, if he had seen
the carriage. The peasant had seen it; he was vague as to how long
ago, and how far away, but Tinker was sure that he had seen it.
Accordingly, he drove on the car at full speed again. In this way,
going at full speed, and now and again slowing down to inquire, he got
over a good many miles. He was frightened when he went through a town
lest the police should try to stop him, but it seemed that they had
received no such instructions from Ventimiglia.
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