r
between the British Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Maxine de Renzie:
still, the danger and difficulty of the apparently simple mission had
been so strongly impressed on me that I did not intend to neglect any
precaution.

I lingered therefore; and the Jewish-looking man with his heavy-faced
friend lingered also, for some reason of their own. They had no luggage,
except a small handbag each, but these they opened at the last minute to
stuff in their newspapers, and apparently to review the other contents.
Presently, when the first rush for the boat was over, and the porters
who had come to the door of our compartment had gone away empty-handed,
I would have got out, had I not caught an imploring glance from the
little man who had reserved the carriage. Perhaps I imagined it, but his
pink-rimmed eyes seemed to say, "For heaven's sake, don't leave me alone
with these others."

"Would you be so very kind, sir," he said to me, "to beckon a porter, as
you are near the door? I find after all that I shan't be able to carry
everything myself."

I did as he asked; and there was so much confusion in the carriage when
the porter came, that in self-defence the two friends got out with their
bags. I also descended and would have followed in the wake of the crowd,
if the little man had not called after me. He had lost his ticket, he
said. Would I be so extremely obliging as to throw an eye about the
platform to see if it had fallen there?

I did oblige him in this manner, without avail; but by this time he had
found the missing treasure in the folds of his travelling rug; and
scrambling out of the carriage, attended by the porter I had secured for
him, he would have walked by my side towards the boat, had I not dropped
behind a few steps, thinking--as always--of the contents of that inner
breast pocket.

He and I were now at the tail-end of the procession hastening boatward,
or almost at the tail, for there were but four or five other
passengers--a family party with a fat nurse and crying baby--behind us.
As I approached the gangway, I saw on deck my late travelling
companions, the Jewish man and his friend, regarding us with interest.
Then, just as I was about to step on board, almost on the little man's
heels, there came a cry apparently from someone ahead: "Look
out--gangway's falling!"

In an instant all was confusion. The fat nurse behind me screamed, as
the nervous fellow in front leaped like a cat, intent on saving