"Il faut agir!" said the Frenchman, with the true Napoleonic grasp of
the situation, and he bounced in a lithe, over-confident manner at
Selina.
In a flash she had her left hand well gripped in his abundant hair, and
was clawing his face with her right. He screamed and writhed; and the
struggle gave Tinker his chance. He slipped the key out of the inside
of the door, thrust it into the outside; as the Frenchman tore himself
away yelling, he cried, "Outside, Selina!" strengthened the command by
a strong drag on her arm; got her outside; slammed to the door, and
locked it almost before the kidnappers had realised that he was there.
He wrenched the key out of the lock just as Dorothy had got the
front-door open; ran down the hall; caught Elsie's hand, and crying,
"Come along! Come along!" ran down the avenue, followed by Dorothy and
Selina as fast as they could pelt.
Three minutes brought them to the car; and he bundled his breathless
charges into it, drove it out of the clump of trees, and sent it hard
down the road. Just before Apricale he bade them crouch down in the
car that they might not be seen, and rushed through the ill-lighted
street at full speed. A mile beyond the town he lighted the lamp and
drove her at full speed again, along the smooth road to Islabona.
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