'Why do you say that?'
The newspaperman stared at him, turning the soiled cloth over in his hands.
'Well, the Germans are across the Marne.'
The old man stared at him.
'And now the Italians are coming up from the south.'
He did not quite take in the latter sentence.
'Across the Marne?' he said.
'Oh, that's very bad.
Very bad indeed.
But what are the French doing?'
'Running like rabbits,' said Dickinson.
There was a momentary silence.
'What did you say that the Italians were doing?'
'They've declared war on France.
Didn't you know?'
The old man shook his head.
'Nobody told me that.'
'It only happened yesterday.
The French may not have announced it yet, but it's true enough.'
By their side a little petrol flooded out from the full tank on to the road; one of the men removed the hose and slammed the snap catch of the filler cap with a metallic clang.
'That's the lot,' he said to Dickinson.
'I'll slip across and get a few brioches, and then we'd better get going.'
Dickinson turned to Howard.
'You must get out of this,' he said.
'At once.
You'll be all right if you can get to Paris by tonight - at least, I think you will.
There are boats still running from St Malo.'
The old man stared at him.
'That's out of the question, Dickinson.
The other child has got a temperature.'
The man shrugged his shoulders.
'Well, I tell you honestly, the French won't hold.
They're broken now - already.
I'm not being sensationalist.
It's true.'
Howard stood staring up the street.
'Where are you making for?'
'I'm going down into Savoy to see what the Italians are doing in that part.
And then, we're getting out.
Maybe Marseilles, perhaps across the frontier into Spain.'
The old man smiled.
'Good luck,' he said.
'Don't get too near the fighting.'
The other said: 'What are you going to do, yourself?'
'I don't quite know.
I'll have to think about it.'
He turned away towards the hotel, leading Ronnie by the hand.
A hundred yards down the road the mud-stained, green car came softly up behind, and edged into the kerb beside him.
Dickinson leaned out of the driver's seat.
'Look, Howard," he said.