iculty.

"'Breakfast, sir?' he asked.

"'Anything,' I sighed, and stepped out to the platform, rubbing my
legs and shivering. The other passengers were already breakfasting in
the station cafe, and I joined them and managed to swallow a cup of
coffee and a roll.

"The morning broke gray and cloudy, and I bundled myself into my
mackintosh for a tramp along the platform. Up and down I stamped,
puffing a cigar, and digging my hands deep in my pockets, while the
other passengers huddled into the warmer compartments of the train or
stood watching the luggage being lifted into the forward
mail-carriage. The wait was very long; the hands of the great clock
pointed to six, and still the train lay motionless along the platform.
I approached a guard and asked him whether anything was wrong.

"'Accident on the line,' he replied; 'monsieur had better go to his
compartment and try to sleep, for we may be delayed until noon.'

"I followed the guard's advice, and, crawling into my corner, wrapped
myself in the rug and lay back watching the rain-drops spattering
along the window-sill. At noon the train had not moved, and I lunched
in the compartment. At four o'clock in the afternoon the
station-master came hurrying along the platform, crying, 'Montez!
montez! messieurs, s'il vous plait'--and the train steamed out of the
station and whirled away through the flat, treeless Belgian plains. At
times I dozed, but the shaking of the car always awoke me, and I would
sit blinking out at the endless stretch of plain, until a sudden
flurry of rain blotted the landscape from my eyes. At last a long,
shrill whistle from the engine, a jolt, a series of bumps, and an
apparition of red trousers and bayonets warned me that we had arrived
at the French frontier. I turned out with the others, and opened my
valise for inspection, but the customs officials merely chalked it,
without examination, and I hurried back to my compartment amid the
shouting of guards and the clanging of station bells. Again I found
that I was alone in the compartment, so I smoked a cigarette, thanked
Heaven, and fell into a dreamless sleep.

"How long I slept I do not know, but when I awoke the train was
roaring through a tunnel. When again it flashed out into the open
country I peered through the grimy, rain-stained window and saw that
the storm had ceased and stars were twinkling in the sky. I stretched
my legs, yawned, pushed my travelling-cap back from my forehead, and