Part 2 (1/2)

Then the fog came down over us again. We sat helplessly and gazed at the fateful paper.

”There's only one thing for it, d.i.c.ky,” I said finally, ”I'll take the blooming thing back to London with me and hand it over to the Intelligence. After all, Francis may have a code with them. Possibly they will see light where we grope in darkness.”

”Desmond,” said d.i.c.ky, giving me his hand, ”that's the most sensible suggestion you've made yet. Go home and good luck to you. But promise me you'll come back here and tell me if that piece of paper brings the news that dear old Francis is alive.”

So I left d.i.c.ky but I did not go home. I was not destined to see my home for many a weary week.

CHAPTER III

A VISITOR IN THE NIGHT

A volley of invective from the box of the cab--bad language in Dutch is fearfully effective--aroused me from my musings. The cab, a small, uncomfortable box with a musty smell, stopped with a jerk that flung me forward. From the outer darkness furious altercation resounded above the plas.h.i.+ng of the rain. I peered through the streaming gla.s.s of the windows but could distinguish nothing save the yellow blur of a lamp.

Then a vehicle of some kind seemed to move away in front of us, for I heard the grating of wheels against the kerb, and my cab drew up to the pavement.

On alighting, I found myself in a narrow, dark street with high houses on either side. A grimy lamp with the word ”Hotel” in half-obliterated characters painted on it hung above my head, announcing that I had arrived at my destination. As I paid off the cabman another cab pa.s.sed.

It was apparently the one with which my Jehu had had words, for he turned round and shouted abuse into the night.

My cabman departed, leaving me with my bag on the pavement at my feet, gazing at a narrow dirty door, the upper half of which was filled in with frosted gla.s.s. I was at last awake to the fact that I, an Englishman, was going to spend the night in a German hotel to which I had been specially recommended by a German porter on the understanding that I was a German. I knew that, according to the Dutch neutrality regulations, my pa.s.sport would have to be handed in for inspection by the police and that therefore I could not pa.s.s myself off as a German.

”Bah!” I said to give myself courage, ”this is a free country, a neutral country. They may be offensive, they may overcharge you, in a Hun hotel, but they can't eat you. Besides, any bed in a night like this!” and I pushed open the door.

Within, the hotel proved to be rather better than its uninviting exterior promised. There was a small vestibule with a little gla.s.s cage of an office on one side and beyond it an old-fas.h.i.+oned flight of stairs, with a gla.s.s k.n.o.b on the post at the foot, winding to the upper stories.

At the sound of my footsteps on the mosaic flooring, a waiter emerged from a little cubby-hole under the stairs. He had a blue ap.r.o.n girt about his waist, but otherwise he wore the short coat and the d.i.c.ky and white tie of the Continental hotel waiter. His hands were grimy with black marks and so was his ap.r.o.n. He had apparently been cleaning boots.

He was a big, fat, blonde man with narrow, cruel little eyes. His hair was cut so short that his head appeared to be shaven. He advanced quickly towards me and asked me in German in a truculent voice what I wanted.

I replied in the same language, I wanted a room.

He shot a glance at me through his little slits of eyes on hearing my good Bonn accent, but his manner did not change.

”The hotel is full. The gentleman cannot have a bed here. The proprietress is out at present. I regret....” He spat this all out in the offhand insolent manner of the Prussian official.

”It was Franz, of the Bopparder Hof, who recommended me to come here,” I said. I was not going out again into the rain for a whole army of Prussian waiters.

”He told me that Frau Schratt would make me very comfortable,” I added.

The waiter's manner changed at once.

”So, so,” he said--quite genially this time--”it was Franz who sent the gentleman to us. He is a good friend of the house, is Franz. Ja, Frau Schratt is unfortunately out just now, but as soon as the lady returns I will inform her you are here. In the meantime, I will give the gentleman a room.”

He handed me a candlestick and a key.

”So,” he grunted, ”No. 31, the third floor.”

A clock rang out the hour somewhere in the distance.