d-bye. Then the whole thing seemed to melt away. The trains went on,
the soldiers climbed into a truck attached to one of them, and
everything was just as quiet as before."

"And afterwards?"

"I waited until it was clear daylight, and then I resumed my walk along
the line. I found the next station about five miles off, and I was
thankful to see that the guard of the train which had left me behind had
had the sense to put my luggage out there. I went to the hotel and had
some breakfast, and afterwards I chucked my idea of going so far as the
frontier, and left for Vienna. A week later I was in Paris."

The Duke nodded.

"I have asked you this question before," he said "but Monsieur Grisson
is anxious to hear it from your own lips. To how many people did you
tell this little adventure of yours before you reached Paris?"

"To not a soul!" Guy answered. "I was very dull in Vienna. I found no
one who could speak English and my few words of German did me no good at
all. I came on to Paris within a week."

The Duke nodded.

"And in Paris for the first time!" he remarked. "You mentioned the
affair?"

"Yes! I took up an illustrated paper at a cafe on the night of my
arrival whilst waiting for supper, and saw pictures of two men there who
reminded me very much of the two whom I had seen on the railway near
Pozen. I think I made some remark out loud which attracted the attention
of a woman who was sitting at the next table, and later on I told her
the whole story."

"And since then?"

"Since then I have told it to no one."

"Was there any one in the cafe you have spoken of who seemed to take any
particular interest in you?"

Guy considered for a moment.

"There was a young lady from Vienna," he said, "who seemed to want to
talk to me."

The two men exchanged glances.

"Madame has justified herself," the Duke murmured.

"She was trying to listen to what I was saying to the English
girl--Mademoiselle Flossie, she called herself, and when she went away
with her friends she threw me a note with two words on it--'_prenez
garde!_' I know it struck me as being rather queer, because----"

He hesitated. The Duke nodded.

"Go on!" he said.

"Well, I may as well tell you everything," Guy continued, "even if it
does sound rather like rot. All the time I was in Vienna and on the
journey to Paris I fancied that I was being followed. I kept on seeing
the same people, and a man who got in at Strasburg--I had seen him
b