"Monsieur will pardon me!"
Ughtred glanced up, startled. For an hour or more he had been watching
with fascinated eyes the great rolling pine forests through which the
train was rushing. Brand and Reist were in the restaurant-car--Ughtred
was rapidly becoming too excited to eat. They had entered upon the
last stage of their journey. Somewhere away beyond that dim line of
mountains was Theos. So far they had been neither accosted nor
watched. This was the first stranger who had addressed a word to
either of them.
"You wished for a seat here?" Ughtred asked.
The priest, who had come through from the dining-car, held between his
fingers an unlit cigar. His fat, good-humoured face was a little
flushed. He had the appearance of a man who has found his dinner a
satisfactory meal.
"It is your _coupe_, I understand, monsieur," he answered, "but the
smoking-car is full. I wondered if monsieur would permit me to occupy
his friend's seat until he returns. One misses a smoke so much."
He looked longingly at the cigar. Ughtred rose and cleared off the
rugs and papers which were spread over the vacant seats.
"My friends, I am sure, will have no objection," he declared. "I think
that there is room for all of us."
The priest was volubly thankful. He lit his cigar and puffed at it
with obvious pleasure.
"Monsieur is doubtless a great traveller," he remarked, urbanely. "For
me a journey such as this is an event--a wonderful event. Not once in
many years do I leave my people. Monsieur will be amused, but it is
indeed ten years since I found myself in a railway train."
Ughtred was reserved, but the priest was quite willing to bear
the brunt of the conversation so long as he had a listener. It
appeared that he was on his way to visit his brother, who was a
prosperous merchant in Belgrade. And monsieur?--if he were not too
inquisitive--should he have the pleasure of his company all the way?
Ughtred hesitated for the fraction of a second. Reist was passing
along the corridor with imperturbable face, but with his cap in his
hand--an agreed upon sign of danger. So Ughtred, to whom a lie was as
poison, braced himself for the effort.
"I go even farther than you," he declared. "My journey is not ended at
Constantinople."
The priest's fat face was wrinkled into smiles. It was most
fortunate--his own good fortune. For himself he was so unaccustomed to
travel that he found it impossible to read. He was excited--besides,
it gave him the headache. To converse only was possible. But after all
he had no right to inflict himself thus upon monsieur. He had perhaps
affairs to attend to--or he desired to sleep? Ughtred, who found it
impossible to suspect this fat, simple-mannered man so shabbily
dressed, so wrapped in enjoyment of his bad cigar, smiled, and shook
his head. They drifted into conversation. Ughtred learned the entire
village history of Baineuill, and was made acquainted with the names
and standing of each of its inhabitants from Jean the smith to
Monsieur le Comte, who was an infidel, and whose house-parties were as
orgies of the evil one.
"And monsieur," the priest asked, ingenuously, "monsieur is perhaps a
soldier? I have talked so long of my own poor affairs. It must be
tedious."
Just then Reist and Brand passed along the corridor, laughing
heartily. Brand paused, and with a bow to the priest held out a paper
to Ughtred.
"Read that, Brand!" he exclaimed. "These papers are the drollest in
the world."
Ughtred looked up puzzled, but took the paper held out insistently
towards him. At the bottom of an illustration were a few pencilled
words.
"Be careful! Remember! You are W. B. The priest has been asking
questions about us!"
Ughtred read, and smiled. The priest leaned forward.
"It is a joke, eh? Monsieur will permit me also? It is good to laugh."
Brand was equal to the occasion. He took the paper quickly away from
Ughtred.
"Monsieur," he said, removing his cap, "the joke which I pointed out
to my friend has, without doubt, humour, but the journal, as you see,
is for the students. Monsieur will excuse me if I refrain from
offering it to him."
The priest acquiesced with a graver face, and some show of dignity.
"But I fear, monsieur," he said to Brand, "that I am occupying your
seat. You wish to return here, beyond a doubt?"
Brand shook his head.
"By no means, monsieur," he declared. "For the present, at any rate, I
am engaged elsewhere."
They passed along the corridor. Glancing up at the priest, Ughtred was
aware of a slight change in his expression. His brows were contracted,
he was immersed in thought. The change was momentary, however. Soon he
was again chattering away--still always of his own affairs. But there
came a time when he wound up a little speech with a question.
"Is it not so, Monsieur Brand--was not that how your friend called
you?"
Ughtred assented.
"My name is Walter Brand," he answered.
Again there came that faint change in the priest's face.
"Monsieur will not think me curious," he said. "He is perhaps a
soldier?"
Ughtred shook his head.
"I have seen some fighting," he said, "but I am not a soldier. I am a
journalist, if you know what that means--one who writes for the
newspapers. My friend whom you saw speak to me just now is a soldier
by profession."
The priest nodded pleasantly.
"And he, like yourself," he asked, "is he, too, English?"
Ughtred looked around, and lowered his voice.
"He has been in the English army, but he is not an Englishman. He has
had a very unfortunate history. I wish that I could tell it to you,
but the time is too short, and he does not like to be talked about."
The priest's face shone with sympathy.
"Poor fellow!" he murmured.
"Brand!"
They both looked up. Brand himself had entered the _coupe_. There was
a slight frown upon his forehead, and his tone was curt.
"I wish you would explain to the conductor about our tickets," he
said. "He is very stupid, and I cannot make him understand."
Ughtred rose at once and left the _coupe_. Brand bowed gravely to the
priest.
"I trust monsieur will excuse me," he said, "for interrupting what I
am sure must have been a very agreeable conversation."
The slight foreign accent was beautifully done. Brand was as tall as
Ughtred, and although not so broad his carriage was good and his
natural air one of distinction. The priest smiled benignly upon him.
"I fear," he said, "that I have already wearied your friend. My life
must seem so humdrum to him, and to you, who have travelled so far and
seen so much. For I, monsieur, as I have told your friend, have lived
all my days in one quiet country place, and this journey is a great
event for me."
Brand slipped into the vacant seat. In the vestibule Ughtred met
Reist. He drew him into the smoking-compartment. He was very pale,
and his voice shook with emotion.
"The priest," he said, "is a creature of Domiloff's. You were on your
guard?"
Ughtred nodded.
"What a famous fellow Brand is. Up to now, at any rate, his scheme has
worked. He is personating me bravely, and really we are very much
alike."
"He will be too clever for him," Reist said. "It is a matter of time.
Do you know that in half-an-hour we shall be at the frontier?"
"So soon?" Ughtred exclaimed.
"Listen! I had a message from our friends at Limburg. The train will
be searched at the barrier. There will be a determined attempt to
prevent your entering the country. Theos is in a state of hopeless
confusion. The motion to repeal your sentence of banishment is still
before the House of Laws. The Custom officers, and I am afraid the
Government officials, have been heavily bribed by Russia not to pass
you across the frontier."
A bright light flashed in Ughtred's eyes.
"So we shall see," he muttered.
"They have a plan ready for us, no doubt," Reist continued, "and that
priest is in it. Never mind. We shall outwit them. If only your friend
Brand is equal to his part."
"The man is a born actor," Ughtred said. "I left him playing the
Prince as I could never have done it. I do not think that Domiloff's
man will find him out."
Reist pulled the window softly down and looked out. The train was
passing across a high bridge. Below, the river wound its way through a
stretch of rocky, broken country.
"We are barely twenty miles from my home--the castle of Reist is to
the left of the hills there. In a few minutes the train will stop. Be
ready to follow me, and do exactly as I do."
"But we are not timed to stop until we reach Gallona!"
"Never mind," Reist answered. "This will be a stop that does not
appear upon the time-table. It is the plan of those who are working
for us in Theos, and it is good. At the village station of Moschaum
the signals will be against us, and we shall stop. Our task is to
leave the train unseen--it may be difficult, but I have bribed all the
servants, and they are preparing to see nothing. There will be horses
waiting for us--and then--then it will be a gallop for a kingdom."
"The plan seems good enough," Ughtred said, thoughtfully, "and I am in
your hands. But what about Brand?"
Reist shrugged his shoulders.
"He is one of those who love adventure, and I do not think that he can
come to any harm. Let him play out his game. It was his own idea to
personate you, and the risk is his own. Ah!"
There was a sudden slackening of speed. The brakes were on and the
whistle sounding. Reist strolled to the platform of the car as though
to look out, and Ughtred followed him. A conductor unfastened the gate
and slipped away. The train had come to a standstill in a tiny
station, a little wooden building with a cupola, and everywhere
surrounded with a dense forest of pines. Reist looked swiftly round.
"Now," he said. "Follow me."
They slipped from the train on the side remote from the platform, and
in half-a-dozen strides had reached the impenetrable shelter of the
trees. Then there was a whistle. The train crawled onward serpent-like
with its flaring electric lights and the shower of sparks which flew
upwards from the engine. An hour later Ughtred, riding in silence and
at breakneck speed with Reist at his elbow crossed the frontier of his
kingdom.