ay.

"Helping the porter?" he said pleasantly. "I wondered where you got
that two shillings from last week. But oughtn't you to be in uniform?
I should have thought Nathans--"

"I've chosen a bath," I said, seeking to divert his thoughts. After
all he might not have seen. "Fine big place. Stacks of baths, you
know. By the way, the office-boy took me for a commercial traveller, I
added.

"Naturally. And the girl? Who did she take you for?"

I drew myself up.

"She's a C.B. too," I said loftily. "What more natural than that we
should--"

"C.B.?" said Berry scornfully. "Now, if you had said K.G.--"

I cut him short.

"You needn't tell the others," I said.

A fat grin stole into his face. He sighed.

"The call of duty, brother, however distasteful--"

"Look here," said I. "You know those new cigars at the club?"

"Yes," he said eagerly. "The half-a-crown ones."

"They're not new," I said uneasily.

"Never mind," he said airily, taking my arm. "I feel sure a
half-a-crown cigar would affect my memory. And a dry Martini would
probably finish it."

I groaned.

"This is sheer blackmail," said I.

"Take it or leave it," said Berry, with the air of one who has the
whip-hand.

"All right," I said wearily.

"I should think so, my son. And cheap at the price, too."

On the whole I think it was.

CHAPTER XIII

A LUCID INTERVAL

"Ausgang verboten!" said the guard.

"Yes," said Berry. "You look it."

"Hush!" said Daphne.

"Hush yourself," replied her husband. "The man is ill. I would
minister to him."

We got him away somehow and bore him towards a taxi. Before we could
stop him, he had congratulated the driver in excellent French on his
recovery from the accident "which had so painfully disfigured him," and
had asked for the name and address of the man who had designed the body
of his cab. This was too much for Daphne, and she and Jonah called
another taxi, and said they would see us at the hotel. Satisfied that
the conductor of the hotel omnibus was collecting our luggage, I
followed Jill and Berry into the cab, and we drove out of the station.

When we reached the hotel, Berry told the porter that he need not
uncover, as he was travelling incognito, and asked if Mrs. Pleydel had
arrived. Receiving a negative answer, he gave the man five marks and
asked him to be very careful as to the way he lifted the cat's basket
out of his wife's cab. Then he suffered himself to