They paid him scant attention. The last he saw of them they were gazing enraptured into each other's eyes.
VI
It was well over an hour since he had returned to his compartment. He had left his door wide, so that he could inspect every one who passed along the corridor. They couldn't have slipped by without his noticing. He was becoming almost as distrustful of Santa as he was of the stranger. Already the rôle of unwanted husband was growing irksome. The thing that baffled him most was her morbid curiosity. It was revolting to think of her, with her disarming air of refinement, encouraging her admirer to conjecture the details of a crime which she herself had committed. But how had she committed it? He himself did not know. He had just begun to contrive the scene in his mind when they entered. Her face was lit with a new intensity. At a glance he was aware that whatever she had learned had quickened her emotions. The Captain followed grudgingly, like a dog hanging back on a chain.
“Captain Lajos has been telling me,” she commenced. “But we'd better have the door closed. He's been telling me things that you ought to know. He's so concerned for my sake that he's offered to repeat them.”
The Captain seated himself opposite to Hind-wood and regarded him gravely. “The things that I've been telling your wife are not my secrets. I must ask you to give me your solemn promise.”
“You may take that for granted.”
“And there's one other point. I didn't offer to repeat them; it was Mrs. Hindwood who urged me. I'm making this plain because I don't want you to think I'm offering you my advice uninvited.”
Hindwood lit a fresh cigar, fortifying himself against whatever shock was pending. “I give you full credit for your motives.”
“Then let me ask you a question. Have you noticed that there are scarcely any women on this train?”
“I believe you're right. But until you mentioned it I hadn't noticed.”