committed to the journey northward. But as I was
dozing in my place and the train slowed on entering Amberieu, the
guard whom I had suborned came to me with a hurried call.

"Monsieur, monsieur, you must be quick. Madame has descended and is
just leaving the station. No doubt for the Hotel de France, just
opposite."

There she was indeed with all her belongings. (How well I knew them by
this time!) The maid with her child in arms, the porter with the light
baggage.

I quickened my pace and entered the hotel almost simultaneously with
her. Ranging up alongside I said, not without exultation:

"Geneva was not so much to your taste, then? You have left rather
abruptly."

"To whom are you speaking, sir?" she replied in a stiff, strange
voice, assumed, I felt sure, for the occasion. She was so closely
veiled that I could not see her face, but it was the same figure, the
same costume, the same air. Lady Blackadder that was, Mrs. Blair as
she now chose to call herself, I could have sworn to her among a
thousand.

"It won't do, madame," I insisted. "I'm not to be put off. I know all
about it, and I've got you tight, and I'm not going to leave go again.
No fear." I meant to spend the night on guard, watching and waiting
till I was relieved by the arrival of the others, to whom I
telegraphed without delay.

CHAPTER XIV.

[_Colonel Annesley resumes._]

I left my narrative at the moment when I had promised my help to the
lady I found in such distress in the Engadine express. I promised it
unconditionally, and although there were circumstances in her case to
engender suspicion, I resolutely ignored them. It was her secret, and
I was bound to respect it, content to await the explanation I felt
sure she could make when so minded.

It was at dinner in the dining-car, under the eyes of her persecutor,
that we arranged to give him the slip at Basle. It was cleverly
accomplished, I think.

[_Here the Colonel gives an account of all that happened between Basle
and Brieg; and as the incidents have been already described by Falfani
it is unnecessary to retell them, except to note that Annesley had
quickly discovered the detective's escape outside Goeschenen and lost
no time in giving chase._]

As may be supposed I rejoiced greatly on reaching Brieg to find that
Falfani had been bitterly disappointed. It was plain from the telegram
that was handed to him on arrival, and which so upset him that he
suffered me to take