kill and throw out of the window an
entire stranger who looked like the proprietor of a small confectionery
shop, in mourning for a departed friend. Of course there was nothing to
be done, but the man's presence irritated Renwick. As the moments went
on, and the man still silently stared out of the window, Renwick's
choler diminished. The fellow was quite harmless, a person from whom
murder and secret missions were miles asunder. If the man of the green
limousine had foreseen that Renwick would take the nine o'clock train
for Budapest and had set this behemoth upon him, the man would have made
an attempt upon his life this morning in the ride between Vacz and the
capital. And how, since the telegraph lines were closed to the German
agent, could this person have been put upon the scent? It hardly seemed
possible that this was an agent of Germany. And yet as the miles flew
by, the stranger's silence, immobility and unchanging expression got on
Renwick's nerves. He was in no mood to do a psychopathic duel with a
sphinx.

The morning dragged slowly. At Szabadka he got down for lunch and was
not surprised to see his traveling companion at his elbow, eating with a
deliberation which gave Renwick a momentary hope that the train might
get off without him. Renwick was already in his carriage and the guard
calling when the fellow stalked majestically from the eating-room
munching at the remains of his _Boehmische Dalken_ and entered the
carriage, still clinging to the cotton umbrella, and quite oblivious of
the powdered sugar with which he was liberally besmeared. Secret agent!
The man was a joke--a rectangular comedy in monosyllables.

There was no connection for Brod at Szabadka until late in the afternoon
and Renwick hoped to make better time by going on to Ujvidek, a large
town, somewhat sophisticated, where the buying or hiring of a machine
would be a possibility. During the afternoon he took Marishka's letter
from his pocket and studied it again, now quite oblivious of the
creature who had curiously enough resumed the same seat opposite him.
And in his concentration upon the problem of the note the man was for
the moment forgotten. It was only when he glanced up quickly and quite
unintentionally that he saw the gaze of his neighbor eagerly watching
him. It was only a fleeting glance, but in it, it seemed, the whole
character of his fellow traveler had changed. His hands still clasped
the umbrella, the sugar was still smear