The guard was looking at tickets in Josephine"s compartment. Fandor went near to listen; he heard the tail of a conversation between the fair traveller, her companion and the guard. The latter declared as he withdrew:
"Exactly so, you shall not be disturbed."
When Josephine had boarded the train, Fandor had not ventured to watch her too closely, nor the companion she had met on the platform at the last moment. He now decided to take advantage of the corridor to take a look at the man.
He was quite stout, rather common in appearance, although with a prosperous air. A man of middle age, whose jolly face was framed in a beard, giving him the look of an old mariner. Moreover, he was one-eyed.
Josephine was playful, full of smiles and amiability, but also somewhat absent-minded.
The pair had decidedly the appearance of being lovers.
Although it was quite early, pa.s.sengers were arranging to pa.s.s the night as comfortably as possible. The lamps had been shaded with their little blue curtains, and the portieres, facing the corridors, had been drawn.
Fandor returned to his compartment. Two corners of it were already occupied--the two furthest away from the corridor. One was in possession of a man about forty, with a waxed moustache, having the air of an officer in mufti, the other was taken by a young collegian with a waxen complexion.
The journalist determined to keep awake, but scarcely had he settled himself when drowsiness crept over him. Rocked by the regular motion of the train he sank into a slumber troubled by nightmares. Then suddenly he sprang up. He had the clear impression of some one brushing by him and opening the door to the corridor.
"Who is there?" he murmured in a voice thick with sleep and drowned by the rush of the train. No one answered him. He staggered out into the corridor. At the far end of the carriage a pa.s.senger, with a long black beard, was standing smoking a cigar, and apparently studying the murky country. Not a sound came from Josephine"s apartment. With a shrug of his shoulders and cursing his fears, Fandor returned to his own seat.
Why should he fancy, because he was following Josephine, that all the pa.s.sengers in the train were cut-throats and accomplices of Loupart"s mistress? Yet, five minutes after these sage reflections, Fandor started again; he had distinctly seen, pa.s.sing along the corridor, two fellows with villainous faces and suspicious demeanour. One of them cast into Fandor"s compartment such a murderous glance that it made the journalist"s heart palpitate.
Fandor glanced at his companions. The officer was sleeping soundly, but the young fellow, although keeping perfectly still, opened his eyes from time to time and cast uneasy glances about him, then pretended to sleep as soon as he caught Fandor watching him.
The train slackened speed; they were entering Laroche Station; there was a stop to change engines. The officer suddenly awoke and got out. The compartment holding Josephine and her companion was thrown open, and, strange to say, his neighbour, the collegian, had moved into it, sitting just opposite the stout gentleman.
Fandor, with a view to keeping awake, abandoned his comfortable seat and settled himself in one of the hammocks in the corridor. He chose the one just opposite Josephine"s door. But so great was his weariness that he quickly fell into a deep sleep. Suddenly a violent shock sent him rolling to the cross-seat in Josephine"s compartment. As he picked himself up in a dazed condition, a cry of terror broke from his lips.
Three inches from his head was the muzzle of a revolver held by a big ruffian wearing a mask, who cried:
"Hands up, all!"
Fandor and his companions were too amazed to immediately obey, and the command came again, more forcible.
"Hands up, and don"t stir or I"ll blow out your brains."
And now a gnome-like individual appeared, also masked.
The first one turned to Josephine: "You, woman, out of here!"
Without betraying by her expression whether or no she was his accomplice, Josephine hurriedly left her place and, slipping between the gnome and the colossus, went and cowered down at the end of the carriage.
"Go on!" suddenly commanded the big ruffian, who seemed to be the leader. "Go on! rifle "em!"
The gnome, with wonderful adroitness, ransacked the coat and waistcoat pockets of the traveller. The stout man, shaking with alarm, made no resistance. After relieving him of his watch and pocketbook, they forced him to undo his shirt. Around his waist he wore a broad leather belt.
"Go it, Beaumome, relieve him of his burden, the fat jacka.s.s!"
From the body of the traveller, the stolen belt pa.s.sed to the big masked robber, who weighed the prize complacently. The belt contained pockets stuffed with gold and bank notes. The two robbers then moved away toward the further end of the carriage.
Fandor, furious at being tricked like the simplest of greenhorns, determined to seize the occasion to give the alarm.
The emergency bell was immediately above the pale-faced collegian. With a bound the journalist sprang for it, but fell back with a loud cry as he felt a sharp pain in his hand. The collegian had leaped up and cruelly bitten his finger. So great was the pain that Fandor swooned for a few seconds, and that gave his a.s.sailant time to cross the compartment and reach the corridor. At this moment the express slackened its speed and slowly came to a standstill.
"Is it too high to jump?"
Fandor knew the voice: it was Josephine"s.
"No," answered some one. "Let yourself go. I"ll catch you."
The sound of heavy shoes on the footboard told him that the robbers were making off. Josephine went with them, so she was their accomplice. The journalist sprang into the corridor to rush in pursuit. But he recoiled.
A shot rang out, the gla.s.s fell broken before him, and a bullet flattened above his head in the woodwork.
It now seemed to him that the train was gradually gathering way again.
Fandor put his head through the broken gla.s.s and searched the darkness outside.
"Ah!" he cried in amazement. There was no longer a train on the track, or rather, the main body of the train was vanishing in the distance, while the carriage in which he was and the rear baggage car had pulled up. Apparently the robbers had broken the couplings.
At the moment, the stout man, having quite recovered, drew near Fandor and observed the situation.
"Why, we"re backing! We"re backing!" he bellowed with alarm.
"Naturally, we"re going down a slope," calmly replied Fandor. The other groaned and wrung his hands.
"It"s appalling! The Simplon express is only twelve minutes behind us!"
Fandor now realized the frightful danger. Without delay he made for the carriage door, ready to jump and risk breaking his bones rather than face the terrible crash which seemed inevitable. But before he could make up his mind to the leap, a grinding noise became audible. The guard in the baggage car had applied the Westinghouse brakes and in a few minutes they came to a stop.
Fandor and the stout gentleman sprang frantically out of the carriage, and two brakemen jumped from the baggage car, crying: "Get away! Save yourselves!"
Clambering over the ties, they jumped a hedge, floundered in a hole full of water, scratching their hands and tearing their clothes; they rolled down a gra.s.sy slope, stuck in a ploughed field, then dropped to the ground, motionless, as a fearful din burst like thunder on the hush of the night. The Simplon express, racing at full speed, had crashed into the two carriages left on the rails and smashed them to bits, while the engine and forward carriages of the train were telescoped.
XIV
FLIGHT THROUGH THE NIGHT
Scarcely had Loupart received Josephine in his arms, as she jumped from the carriage, than he strenuously urged his companions to make haste.
"Now, then, boys, off we go, and quickly, too! Josephine, pick up your skirts and get a move on!"
It was a dark night, without moon, favourable to the robber"s plans. For a good fifteen minutes the ill-omened crew continued their retreat by forced march. From time to time Loupart questioned the "Beard":
"This the way?"
The other nodded a.s.sent: "Keep on, we"ll get there."