Jean was even more illfavored, having a scar across his mouth which gave
him an artificial harelip. However, he spoke English of a kind. "Your
airship has been confiscated, citizen."
"What the devil do you mean? That plane is my personal property."
"There is no personal property in the Republic One and Indivisible,"
replied Jean. "Be thankful your life is spared, Citizen Englishman, and
go without further argumentations."
I suppose it was reasonable to take this advice, but I could not resist
informing him, "I am not an Englishman, but an American. We also had a
Republic one and indivisible."
He shook his head. "On your ways, citizen. The Republic does not make
distinctions between one bourgeois and another."
I looked around for the pilot, but he had vanished. Alone, furious at
the act of robbery and not a little apprehensive, I began walking toward
the coast; but I was not steeled against isolation among the barbarians
of the Continent, nor dressed for such an excursion. Between anxiety
lest I run into a less pompous and more bloodthirsty group of
representatives of the Republic One and Indivisible--when it had come
into being, how far its authority extended or how long it lasted I never
learned--and the burning and blistering of my feet in their thinsoled
shoes, I doubt if I was more than a few miles from the airfield and
therefore many from the coast when darkness fell. I kept on, tired,
anxious, hungry, in no better plight than thousands of other wretches
who at the same moment were heading the same way under identical
conditions.
The only advantage of traveling by night was the removal of my fear of
the intentions of men, but nature made up for this by putting her own
obstacles in my way. The hedgerows which had been allowed to grow wild,
the unrepaired roadways, sunken and marked by deep holes and ruts and a
hundred other pitfalls made my progress agonizingly slow.
As the moon rose I had a sudden feeling of being near water, and coming
out from a thicket I was confirmed in this by seeing the light break
into ripples on an uneven surface. But tragically, it was not the
Channel I had come upon, merely a river, too wide to cross, which though
it undoubtedly led to my goal, would increase the length of my journey
by many miles. I'm afraid I gave way to a quite unmanly weakness as I
threw myself upon the hard ground and thought of my miserable fate.
I may have lain there for ten minutes, or twenty. The moon went behind a
cloud, the air grew chilly. I was nerving myself to get up and resume my
journey--though to what purpose I could not conceive for I would be
little better off on a Norman beach than inland--when a timid hand was
put upon my shoulder and someone said questioningly, "Angleterre?"