“I said that I would report his behaviour to Colonel Haki. He did not, I must say, seem to care. But if I had any idea of securing his protection, I gave it up. I don’t trust him. Besides, I don’t see why I should risk my life for people who treat me as if I were some sort of criminal.”
He paused. He could not see Moeller’s face in the darkness but he felt that the man was satisfied.
“And so you’ve decided to accept my suggestion?”
“Yes, I have. But,” Graham went on, “before we go any farther, there are one or two things I want to get clear.”
“Well?”
“In the first place, there is this man Kuvetli. He’s a fool, as I’ve said, but he’ll have to be put off the scent somehow.”
“You need have no fears.” Graham thought he detected a note of contempt in the smooth heavy voice. “Kuvetli will cause no trouble. It will be easy to give him the slip in Genoa. The next thing he will hear of you is that you are suffering from typhus. He will be unable to prove anything to the contrary.”
Graham was relieved. Obviously, Moeller thought him a fool. He said doubtfully: “Yes, I see. That’s all right, but what about this typhus? If I’m going to be taken ill I’ve got to be taken ill properly. If I were really taken ill I should probably be on the train when it happened.”
Moeller sighed. “I see that you’ve been thinking very seriously, Mr. Graham. Let me explain. If you were really infected with typhus you would already be feeling unwell. There is an incubation period of a week or ten days. You would not, of course, know what was the matter with you. By to-morrow you would be feeling worse. It would be logical for you to shrink from spending the night in a train. You would probably go to an hotel for the night. Then, in the morning, when your temperature began to rise and the characteristics of the disease became apparent, you would be removed to a clinic.”
“Then we shall go to an hotel to-morrow?”