"We'll go to Nimes."
"Very good, sir," said McKeogh.
"And now," said I, as soon as we had started on the right-hand road,
"will you have the kindness to explain?"
"There's nothing to explain," he cried, gleefully. "Here am I delivered.
I am free. I can breathe God's good air again. I'm not going to marry
Yum-Yum, Yum-Yum. I feel ten years younger. Oh, I've had a narrow
escape. But that's the way with me. I always fall on my feet. Didn't I
tell you I've never lost an opportunity? The moment I saw an Englishman
in difficulties, I realized my opportunity of being delivered out of the
House of Bondage. I took it, and here I am! For two days I had been
racking my brains for a means of getting out of Aigues-Mortes, when
suddenly you--a _Deus ex machina_--a veritable god out of the
machine--come to my aid. Don't say there isn't a Providence watching
over me."
I suggested that his mode of escape seemed somewhat elaborate and
fantastic. Why couldn't he have slipped quietly round to the railway
station and taken a ticket to any haven of refuge he might have
fancied?
"For the simple reason," said he, with a gay laugh, "that I haven't a
single penny piece in the world."
He looked so prosperous and untroubled that I stared incredulously.
"Not one tiny bronze sou," said he.
"You seem to take it pretty philosophically," said I.
"_Les gueux, les gueux, sont des gens heureux_," he quoted.
"You're the first person who has made me believe in the happiness of
beggars."
"In time I shall make you believe in lots of things," he retorted. "No.
I hadn't one sou to buy a ticket, and Amelie never left me. I spent my
last franc on the journey from Carcassonne to Aigues-Mortes. Amelie
insisted on accompanying me. She was taking no chances. Her eyes never
left me from the time we started. When I ran to your assistance she was
watching me from a house on the other side of the _place_. She came to
the hotel while we were lunching. I thought I would slip away unnoticed
and join you after you had made the _tour des remparts_. But no. I must
present her to my English friend. And then--_voyons_--didn't I tell you
I never lost a visiting-card? Look at this?"
He dived into his pocket, produced the letter-case, and extracted a
card.
"_Voila._"