"But you are younger than I thought," he said. "Will you shake hands?"
Max gave his customary hard grip. They looked into each other's eyes for a moment, and separated with mutual respect.
Five seconds later Max had returned to his self-appointed task of helping a dying man to live through the night.
CHAPTER IX
VALPRÉ AGAIN
"How dark it is!" said Chris. "And how we are crawling!"
She turned her white face from the carriage-window with the words. They were the first she had uttered since leaving Paris.
Neither of her two companions responded at once. Noel was curled up in the farther corner asleep, and her husband sitting opposite was writing rapidly in a notebook. He stopped to finish his sentence before he looked up. She was conscious of a little sense of chill because he did so.
"Why don't you try to get a sleep?" he said then. "We shall not reach
Valpré for another two hours."
"I can't sleep," she said.