"Afterwards, please.
We can't have any scandal on board here."
"Five hundred francs wouldn't tempt you to let me have a free hand for just half an hour?
I could do it, say somewhere short of Basle, and on reaching there make off.
No one should be any the wiser, and they, the women, wouldn't dare to make a fuss."
"It's I who do not dare—not for twice five hundred francs.
My place is worth more than that; and if it is a dog's life, it is better than lying on the straw.
Besides, there's her friend the Colonel, he'll be on the alert, you may depend."
"So must I be, and I must find some way to circumvent him.
I'll be even with him.
He sha'n't beat me, the overbearing, hectoring brute.
It's between him and me, and I think I'm a match for him."
I spoke this confidently to my friend, who engaged for his part to do all in his power to assist, or at least to do nothing against me, and I was content to bide my time.
Pride goes before a fall.
I was not as clever as I thought, and shall have to tell you how seriously I had underrated his worth in the coming trial of strength.
As the train sped on and the night began to close in on us, I remained quietly in my berth, pondering over my position, and in considering the course I should adopt under various contingencies.
The first and most serious danger was that the lady should succeed in leaving the train at any of the intermediate stations at Basle, and so give me the slip. There were Laon, Rheims, Chaumont, and the rest.
It must be my business to keep close watch against any evasion of this kind, and Jules had promised to help.
I did not look for any such attempt until far into the night, when the stations were empty and half-dark, and I agreed with Jules to divide the hours till daylight, he taking the first, I the last.
We were due at Basle at 5 a.m., and I expected to join forces then with Tiler, my colleague, coming from the side of Ostend, via Brussels and Strasburg.
Meanwhile I kept quiet and made no sign beyond showing that I was there and on the spot ready to act if it should be necessary.
Thus, when the train slackened speed on approaching a station, I was always on the move and the first to descend and patrol the platform.
The Colonel always got out too, but he never accosted me; indeed, he seemed disposed to despise me, to ignore my existence, or dare me to the worst I could do.
I suppose the lady must have been of the same mind, for when dinner-time arrived, she came boldly out of her compartment, and I met her face to face for the first time, on her way to the restaurant.
I was standing at the door of my compartment.
"Dinner is ready," the Colonel said to me significantly, but I did not choose to understand, and shook my head, holding my ground.
"You are coming to dinner, I think," he repeated in a sharp commanding way, as if he were talking to his soldiers.
"I shall please myself about that," I replied gruffly.
"Not a bit of it. One moment," he whispered to the lady, who walked on, and turned again to me: "Now see here, my friend, I do not mean to leave you behind.
You will come to the dining-car with us, and no two ways about it, even if I have to carry you."
"I won't dine with you," I cried.
"I never asked you to dine with me, but you shall dine when I do.
I will pay for your dinner, but I wouldn't sit at table with you for worlds," he shouted with scornful laughter. "You're going to dine under my eye, that's all, even though the sight of you is enough to make one sick.
So come along, sharp's the word, see?
Walk first; let him pass you, Mrs. Blair."
I felt I had no choice. He was capable of again assaulting me.
There was something in his manner that cowed me, and I was obliged in spite of myself to give way.
There were only three of us in the dining-car, and we were not a very merry company.
Our tables were laid almost adjoining, and there was no conversation between us, except when the Colonel asked me with contemptuous civility what wine I preferred.
He did not talk to the lady, or the merest commonplaces, for I was within earshot.
But I made an excellent dinner, I must confess. I had eaten nothing since Amiens.
Then I got back to my berth, where the bed was made. I threw myself on to it, rejoiced at the prospect of getting a few hours' sleep while Jules remained on the watch.
He was to call me a little before reaching Basle, and, like an ass that I was, I fully relied on his doing so, believing him to be my friend.
Such friendship as his did not bear any great strain, as I learnt presently to my great chagrin.
I slept heavily, but in fitful snatches, as a man does when constantly disturbed by the whirr and whizzing of the train, the rattle and jangle of wheels passing over ill-jointed points.
After one of the longest periods of unconsciousness I awoke, aroused by the complete absence of noise.
The train was at a standstill in some station and making a very protracted halt.
Something moved me to lift the blind and look out, and I saw, not without uneasiness, that we were at Basle.
I thought I recognized the station, but I soon made out for certain the name
"Basilea" (Basle), and saw the clock with the fingers at five-thirty.