.

'A dozen words,' I said carelessly. 'I've been to Windhuk and learned
enough to ask for my dinner. Peter--my friend--speaks it a bit.'

'So,' said Stumm. 'Well, get into the carriage. Not that one! There,
thickhead!'

I did as I was bid, he followed, and the door was locked behind us.
The precaution was needless, for the sight of Stumm's profile at the
platform end would have kept out the most brazen. I wondered if I had
woken up his suspicions. I must be on my guard to show no signs of
intelligence if he suddenly tried me in German, and that wouldn't be
easy, for I knew it as well as I knew Dutch.

We moved into the country, but the windows were blurred with frost, and
I saw nothing of the landscape. Stumm was busy with papers and let me
alone. I read on a notice that one was forbidden to smoke, so to show
my ignorance of German I pulled out my pipe. Stumm raised his head,
saw what I was doing, and gruffly bade me put it away, as if he were an
old lady that disliked the smell of tobacco.

In half an hour I got very bored, for I had nothing to read and my pipe
was _verboten_. People passed now and then in the corridors, but no
one offered to enter. No doubt they saw the big figure in uniform and
thought he was the deuce of a staff swell who wanted solitude. I
thought of stretching my legs in the corridor, and was just getting up
to do it when somebody slid the door back and a big figure blocked the
light.

He was wearing a heavy ulster and a green felt hat. He saluted Stumm,
who looked up angrily, and smiled pleasantly on us both.

'Say, gentlemen,' he said, 'have you room in here for a little one? I
guess I'm about smoked out of my car by your brave soldiers. I've
gotten a delicate stomach ...'

Stumm had risen with a brow of wrath, and looked as if he were going to
pitch the intruder off the train. Then he seemed to halt and collect
himself, and the other's face broke into a friendly grin.

'Why, it's Colonel Stumm,' he cried. (He pronounced it like the first
syllable in 'stomach'.) 'Very pleased to meet you again, Colonel. I
had the honour of making your acquaintance at our Embassy. I reckon
Ambassador Gerard didn't cotton to our conversation that night.' And
the new-comer plumped himself down in the corner opposite me.

I had been pretty certain I would run across Blenkiron somewhere in
Germany, but I didn't think it would be so soon. There he sat staring
at me with his full, unseein