Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-08
E3: z
YOUNG

udIcoi-ol-idcL-lOOhluB mecnhuiCs
What Mr.. Shecraft thought don't know, sir; nor
don't exactly know what he was doing, for when he
was working at the car the door of the garage was
locked and no was allowed to in. There's
no doubt he'd done something to the to give her
more power she was doing speeds that she'd never
been able to do even when she new. But there
nothing wrong with the car; the was all
right said the man in the tone to his kind
when they are defending their charge from blame or
suspicion.
There was nothing more to be learned here, but
of Shecraft's few intimate friends decided to
trace, If I could his movements on that fatal day.
From the direction he had taken leaving the house,
1t seemed that he had by the Bath road instead
of the direct route to Exeter My own car pow
erful and swift, would carry in the track of his
perfervid wheels, and might be able thus to get
some trace.of him. ] therefore made ready for
long journey and, taking Merton with me- as well as
my own man, set out early in the afternoon.
The first news 1 had of Shellcraft was just beyond
Reading, where big powerful car had been seen to
rush through the town in the small hours of the
morning At Marlborough he had taken in petrol
ten gallong and had gone about the town from one
shop to another in search of particular brand He
was out aglin on the road while it was yet early
morning. he had knocked over bridesmaids hand
cart turning just outside Bath, and had gone
his way without pausing. There was a sum
mons out against him at Taunton where he had been
timed through police trap at the rate of eghty-two
miles hour, and had refused to stop when sig
nailed At Exeter he again took in petrol at the New
London Hotel; the waiter in the courtyard there re-
membered a motorst, very dusty and exhausted who
ordered large glass of brandy and drank 1t down
neat.
There was no further trace of him until we got to
lonely stretch of the road 'Dartmoor between
Launceston and Okehampton. The wide road lies
there for a mile two straight as ribbon over
fho Tbara ie liz, o..
an ascent for mile, small culvert marking the
junction of the two gradients. There is hump in
the road this culver familiar to me by unpleas-
ant experience and slowed the down to pass
over it instead of taking the road at
full speed Merton's eye attracted to something
lying among the heaths, and we stopped to see what
it was. There we found cushion, two foor-boards
and part of lfting-jack which had been slowed In
the tonneau Of Shellcrafts car Apparently he had
taken the bump in the road flying the foor-boards
had come loose and the contents the tonneau been
thrown out of the car.
At Bodmin the town still talking of Shecraft,s
passage through it, where he had taken the double
turn through the narrow streets at shocking speed
had skdded round and smashed a sbon-w;ndouv
grazed lamp post the opposite side and rusbed n
on before anyone had had time to stop him.
At Helston we who following the path OF
Shelcraft got the first sinister breath of the sea II
struck across my senses ominously / seemed to see
Shellcraft in his car breathing bndly the salt air
wondered II he felt the change had any sense of
the near sea. He had stopped here in the growing
dusk to fill up with petrol again. don't quite know
why he went by Helston at all unless, knowing that
his petrol was running short he thought he would
be more likely to get his tanks reled there Curious
ly enough, advanced the vision of Shellcraft
became less and less distinct had more and more
the sense of following fevershy in the wake of a
small steel box with lowering patch of radiance
above it.
In narrow and winding bit of road near Semen,
he had passed and narrowly escaped collision with
the Great Western motor bus; the driver said he had
never had such fright in his life The car, he sad
came round the corner like gray ghost in the DUSK
and was upon him and past him, scrapng into the
hedge as it passed before he had time to draw breath
do more than pull over to the side of the road
And that all until Shellcraft reached the Lands
End
We understood by this time that we were on the
trail of tragedy and when the landlord of the little
hotel that stands the cliffs at Lands End told us
of the final catastrophe listened men listen to
a story they have heard before.
Just as it growing light that morning the land
lord told us, he heard the sound of an approaching
motor car He ran to the door and saw large and
powerful advancing at terrific speed along the
road. The carried lights, and though the pro-
prietor waved his arms and shouted it came with
out sackening speed. When it reached the
OF the house, instead of following the road, which
turns sharply to the right it straight to the
smooth grass which borders the edge of the Cliff dis
tant only about twenty yards Here it struck up
standing rock bounced to the edge of the decvity,
and was literally hurled into the below The
crashed into the rock-mbedded sea, and the driver
fell clear of it, striking fiat rock at the foot of
the cliffs
l thought of Shellcraft we stood there the
cliff and watched the last of the daylight fadeout Of
the sky, and the lighthouses the Wolf and the
Longshps open their bright eyes to blink and stare
into the night. thought Of Shellcraf and pictured
him in the dust of that long day, clinging to
the wheel OF his car impeled by forces within and
without him. and inspired for with superhuman
power to hold to its course the living energy of the
machine beneath him.