"I"m going to tell you everything; but that silly a.s.s trick of mine has knocked me. I"ll smoke a cigarette. You don"t mind?"
"Providing you don"t put the end in another pocket," she quizzed. "I thought it was agreed we were not to take things too seriously," she added as I lit up.
"I"ve learnt my lesson." I had indeed. It had cost me the best safe conduct a man could have wished for, and if any unexpected trouble arose, there was now no possibility of undoing the mischief. As the guard pa.s.sed along the corridor a little later, I decided to report the loss at once, and beckoned to him. "I"ve had an unfortunate accident,"
I said. "I"m travelling on special State business and have burnt this very important paper;" and I handed it to him.
He looked at it, turned it over, and shrugged his shoulders. "I"m afraid I can"t be of much help, sir."
"It is my authority signed by Count von Gratzen; you can just make out a part of the official seal; and you will have seen that Herr von Welten was on the platform when we left Berlin."
"Yes, sir. He gave me orders to reserve this compartment for you, but----"
"You can"t do anything, I know; but I wish you to make a note that I told you of the loss. That"s all."
"Would you telegraph to his Excellency, sir?"
"Where"s the first stop?"
"Not till Hanover, sir; but as it is State business and so important, I could stop at the next station for you to send a message, and you would have a reply wired to Hanover, or Osnabruck, if you are going so far."
"A good idea, guard. I"m much obliged to you. I"ll think about it; just give me a form." He took one from his pocket and went off, saying he would come back for the message.
Nessa had listened in the greatest amazement. "Who on earth am I travelling with?" she cried. "Do you mean that you are able to have trains stopped at your mere nod?"
"I"ll tell you who you"re travelling with in a moment, but let me think whether I dare send that wire." It wasn"t long before I decided to risk it. Von Gratzen himself had suggested I should get out of the way for a time: even go to a distance: and would understand the importance of the ruined authority, since I could not return when he needed me without it. He would therefore wire me all I should require, pending the receipt of a new authority. That was all clear enough.
But there was a fly in the ointment. He might have discovered the theft of the papers. But even in that case there wasn"t very much risk, as the von Erstein affair was so vastly more important that he would hesitate before sending any instructions to get me into trouble. So I wrote the message and gave it to the guard, with a ten-mark tip, and the train was accordingly stopped for it to be despatched.
Then I was ready to satisfy Nessa"s acute curiosity. "Now you want to know who your fellow traveller is, eh? I"ll tell you. He"s a composite individual: an Englishman, a German, a State official, a spy, a thief, and an alleged murderer. I hope you"re proud of him."
"I don"t care what he is if he"s going to get me out of Germany. I needn"t know him afterwards, I suppose."
"If you"re disrespectful and don"t behave yourself I"ll--I"ll----"
"Dock my wages, mate?" she popped in in her slangy voice.
"That reminds me. There"s a little thing to be done in case of accidents;" and I took her bag from the seat.
"You don"t mean to tell me you"re going to keep me waiting any longer!"
"I"m not going to have young Hans" clothes found in your possession; much too risky;" and I packed them into my suit case.
"But your risk?"
"There"s none for me. I"m travelling on business of State and may need disguises of any sort. And now I"ll read you the riddles; but we shall have to be quick about it."
"If you dare to hurry over it and not tell me every little detail, I"ll never speak to you again, Jack," she declared with great energy.
"We must drop that Jack business, and speak in my language. And I have to be quick because it"s nearly bedtime."
"You don"t imagine for an instant I"m getting into any sleeping berth to-night surely! I couldn"t sleep a wink. I want to do nothing but talk."
"All right, let it go at that;" and I began the long story. It is needless to say that her interest was acute. She was literally hungry for every detail and interrupted with innumerable questions, so that it took hours to tell, and I hadn"t quite finished when we reached Hanover, where I broke off to get something for us to eat.
A number of officers and soldiers were on the platform there, many of whom stared pretty hard at me; surprised probably to see a man of military age in civilian clothes. I did not take any notice of them; but there was a rather unpleasant incident on my return to the carriage. A couple of officers were in hot altercation with the guard because he would not allow them to enter our compartment.
They grumbled, declaring there was no room anywhere else; but he stood his ground, and in the end they went off in just such a rage as one might expect Prussian officers to show.
Nessa was greatly relieved to see them go, and as soon as the train started we commenced our meal.
"I"m only a nervy idiot," she said; "for I declare I was awfully scared and couldn"t help thinking they knew about the tickets. Do you really believe von Gratzen didn"t know you took them?"
"I"m absolutely fl.u.s.ter-bustered about it. Sometimes I thought he knew I was a fraud; sometimes that he didn"t; he acted both ways, and----"
"But that von Welten was at the station," she broke in.
"Evidently he knew I had them, but must have thought old Gratz gave them to me. He said he had come to make sure I had planted the ring on von Erstein, all right. Otherwise, he"d have stopped us; but he actually asked where you were. It knocked me bang over."
"I"d bet he knew all about it, and so did von Gratzen. I expect the truth is that after you"d saved his wife and Nita that day, he guessed everything and determined to give you a chance to get out of the country. Why, he almost told you to take them when you were with him in the morning. And then that authority he gave you! It"s as plain as a pikestaff he meant that to get out of any bother on the way; and, as if that wasn"t enough, there was von Welten at the station to see that we got away without any trouble."
"Let"s hope you"re right."
"Of course I am. Naturally in view of all that happened he couldn"t give you the things openly or he might have got into a mess over it which couldn"t be explained away. But everything else could. His plan about von Erstein, the brute, gave him an excellent excuse for allowing you to leave Berlin; in fact you can see he was clever enough to cover his tracks at every step. Surely that"s clear enough."
"It may be to you, but I gave up long ago trying to understand him, and if you"d seen as much of him as----"
"I don"t want to see him, not till after the war anyhow, although he"s just the dearest old thing in Germany. If I ever do see him again, I shall want to hug him."
"Hug him as much as you like, by all means; all I wish is that he won"t hug me in the way he probably would if he got the chance. And now hadn"t you better try forty winks?" I suggested.
"What time is it?"
"Nearly one o"clock."
"What time shall we cross the frontier?"
"About an hour after we leave Osnabruck, and we get there at half-past three."
"Then I"ll go to sleep at four o"clock. Not a moment before. I simply couldn"t. Oh, to think that in four hours all the suspense and horrors of the last months will be at an end! When shall we reach home? Think of it, Jack! Home!"
"Depends on our getting a boat. We"ll go right through to Rotterdam and shall reach there by nine or ten to-morrow morning, say before midday anyhow; but we may have to wait for a boat."
"I shan"t mind that. We must wire to mother as soon as we"re over the frontier. Not likely to have any bother there, are we?"
"Can"t think of any. We"ve got all the necessary papers."
"How perfectly glorious! And to think that I owe it all to you."