After what Dormund had told me that day at the station about the passports, I had some doubt whether some demur might be raised about Bessie’s departure; but no questions were asked, and she was soon seated in the ladies’ compartment with two other Englishwomen who, I was glad to hear, were going through to Brussels. In the bustle of the preparations and in giving her full instructions about the packet she was carrying, I had thought no more of the little incident while I was with Althea; but at the last moment I remembered it.
"By the way, Bess, did you come out of your room and go back again while I was talking to Althea?"
"I thought I heard some one run upstairs and shut a door."
"It must have been Baron von Ringheim. He passed my room while I was secreting the papers, and went into his own room. I wondered at the time what had taken him downstairs."
"By Jove, I hope he didn’t hear any thing about the police having left the house. I must get back. Wire me the instant you arrive, Bess. Good-bye."
The train was signalled out then, and with a last wave of the hand to her I left the station. I was eager to be home again. If the Baron had been anxious to leave the house and had really heard me tell Althea the road was clear, it was quite likely he might take advantage of my absence to carry out his purpose.
Anxious as this thought made me, I was not too preoccupied to keep my eyes about me; and it was not without a start of concern that I observed one of the men whom I had seen a short while before at my house. It was the man in plain clothes who joined his uniformed companion to read the letter.
He was apparently absorbed in reading a timetable, but I saw that he followed me as I went out.
I got into a cab therefore and promised a liberal fare for a quick journey. But the night horses of Berlin are not more brilliant than those of London, and we had gone a very short distance before the horse fell.
I jumped out, and found myself in a by thoroughfare which the man had taken for a short cut.
I knew my way well enough, however, and set off homewards at a brisk pace; but as I turned into a narrow street I tripped and fell, just as a man rushed round the corner after me and fired a pistol at very short range, and then bolted like a rabbit.