Beyond Islabona he was forced to go very slowly down the jolting
descent; if he had tried to go at any pace, the car on those loose
stones might at any moment have taken its own steering in hand and
smashed itself against the rocky banks. Dorothy and Elsie took
advantage of the slowness to pour into his ears the tale of how the
kidnappers had seized them on the Corniche a mile outside the town,
thrust them into the carriage, and kept them quiet by threats. Now and
again he hushed them, to listen for pursuing horses. He had not much
fear of pursuit. The kidnappers would be some time breaking out of the
room in which he had locked them; and when they were out they would
scour the neighbourhood on foot. He had kept well out of sight behind
Selina; and they would hear nothing of the car before they began to
pursue. When they did pursue, it would be on the sure-footed hill
horses; they would come three yards to the car's one.
At last they reached Dolceacqua, and pushed steadily and carefully
downwards. Half-way between that town and Camporossa, they came round
a bend in the road, to see half a mile below them the flaring lamp of a
motor-car.
"Here's my father, or the police!" said Tinker with a sigh of relief.
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