ly small size pressed down over his temples, upon
which wisps of hair shone whitely in the sunlight--a man who looked
through big goggles at the scenery as it flashed by, and whose lips
were hidden behind a drooping moustache of iron-grey colour. Beside
him sat a girl, well-grown--masculine one would have almost said--with
laughing features, a girl who had spread herself out in the carriage,
and, lying back against the cushions, had placed her two feet on the
opposite seat, a most inelegant, unladylike, yet possibly comfortable
position. And beside them sat a big, bony, healthy individual, whose
face was shaded by a broad hat, yet not sufficiently shaded to hide the
wide grins which crossed it and denoted the utmost merriment. He was
rubbing his two big, strong hands together, laughing, chuckling, and
gazing every moment out of the window.

"My hat! My uncle! Crikey!" he exclaimed; "but that has really done
it! And what luck we have had, too. To think that we should have been
in a compartment which drew up near the signal station where that
message about us was shouted by the man in charge. I declare again
that you're a regular wizard, Henri, for how else could you have
arranged for the train to halt just in that position, and where, thanks
again to your knowledge of German, it allowed you at once to hear and
understand what was shouted. Let's have the words again."

The old and somewhat delicate-looking gentleman seated beside him
turned upon the big man an expansive smile, a mischievous smile, and,
pushing his goggles up on his forehead, burst into such a ripple of
laughter that his drooping moustache, which seemed so natural, fell
from its place, instantly transforming him. It was the jovial, yet
cautious, Henri enjoying this amazing adventure to the utmost.

"My boy," he said, as he reached for the moustache and carefully
adjusted it, "one moment while I take a glance at myself in the glass
over the seat. That's better, ain't it? Quite straight, and makes me
look the part to perfection. But what did that signalman shout, you
ask? Well, rather an important message, and these are the words as I
remember them: 'You'll stop at the station just beyond', he called to
the driver; 'there are police there waiting for you, for there's
information that there are three escaping prisoners from Ruhleben
amongst the passengers, in disguise of course. Understand? Well, pull
out and run through the tunnel.'"

It