Part 29 (1/2)

Hillyard smiled with contentment. He could understand a German going to any lengths for Germany. He was prepared to do the same himself for his country. But when a neutral under the cloak of his neutrality meddles in this stupendous conflict for cash, for his thirty miserable pieces of silver, he could feel no inclination of mercy.

”Let the neutrals keep out!” he murmured. ”This is not their affair. Let them hold their tongues and go about their own business!”

He received Fairbairn's letter in the beginning of the year 1916. He was still no nearer at that date to the discovery of B.45; nor were they any better informed in London. Hillyard could only wait upon Chance to slip a clue into his hand.

CHAPTER XV

IN A SLEEPING-CAR

The night express from Paris to Narbonne and the Spanish frontier was due to leave the Quai d'Orsay station at ten. But three-quarters of an hour before that time the platform was already crowded, and many of the seats occupied. Hillyard walked down the steps a little before half-past nine with the latest of the evening papers in his hand.

”You have engaged your seat, monsieur,” the porter asked, who was carrying Hillyard's kit-bag.

”Yes,” said Martin absently. He was thinking that on the boulevards the newsboys might now be crying a later edition of the papers than that which he held, an edition with still more details. He saw them surrounded in the darkened street by quiet, anxious groups.

”Will you give me your ticket, monsieur?” the porter continued, and as Hillyard looked at him vacantly, ”the ticket for your seat.”

Hillyard roused himself.

”I beg your pardon. I have a compartment in the sleeping-car, numbers eleven and twelve.”

Amongst many old principles of which Martin Hillyard had first learned the wisdom during these last years, none had sunk deeper than this--that the head of an organisation cannot do the work of any of its members and hope that the machine will run smoothly. His was the task of supervision and ultimate direction. He held himself at the beck and call of those who worked under him. He responded to their summons. And it was in response to a very urgent summons from Fairbairn that he had hurried the completion of certain arrangements with the French authorities in Paris and was now returning to the south! But he was going very reluctantly.

It was July, 1916. The first battle of the Somme, launched some days past, was at its very climacteric. The casualties had been and were terrible. Even at this moment of night the fury of the attack was not relaxed. All through the day reports, exasperating in their brevity, had been streaming into Paris, and rumour, as of old, circled swift-winged above the city, making good or ill the deficiencies of the telegrams.

One fact, however, had leaped to light, una.s.sailably true. The Clayfords, stationed on the north of the line at Thiepval, had redeemed their name and added a new l.u.s.tre to their erstwhile s.h.i.+ning record. The devotion of the officers, the discipline of the men, had borne their fruits. At a most critical moment the Clayfords had been forced to change front against a flank attack, under a galling fire and in the very press of battle, and the long extended line had swung to its new position with the steadiness of veterans, and, having reached it, had stood fast. Hillyard rejoiced with a sincerity as deep as if he himself held his commission in that regiment. But the losses had been terrible; and Martin Hillyard was troubled to the roots of his heart by doubts whether Harry Luttrell were at this moment knowing the deep contentment that the fixed aim of his boyhood and youth had been fulfilled; or whether he was lying out on the dark ground beneath the stars unaware of it and indifferent. Hillyard nursed a hope that some blunder had been made, and that he would find his compartment occupied.

The controller, in his brown uniform with the bra.s.s b.u.t.tons and his peaked cap, stood at the steps of the car with the attendant.

”Eleven and twelve,” said Hillyard, handing to him his ticket.

The attendant, a middle-aged, stout man with a black moustache and a greasy face, shot one keen glance from under the peak of his cap at the occupant of numbers 11 and 12, and then led the way along the corridor.

The compartment was empty. Hillyard looked around it with a grudging eye.

”I am near the middle of the coach here, I think,” he said.

”Yes, monsieur, quite in the middle.”

”That is well,” answered Hillyard. ”I am an invalid, and cannot sleep when there is much motion.”

He spoke irritably, with that tone of grievance peculiar to the man who thinks his health is much worse than it is.

”Can I get coffee in the morning?” he asked.

”At half-past six, monsieur. But you must get out of the train for it.”

Hillyard uttered an exclamation of disgust, and shrugged his shoulders.