He shook himself loose, dropped the bags in the shelter of the station house, doffed his cap to the imperious backs of his late passengers, and scuttled back to the car. A moment later the train was under way.
"Can you not see for yourself?" he shouted from the steps as he passed me by.
Once more I swooped down upon the guard. He was stuffing the large German lady into a small, lopsided carriage, the driver of which was taking off his cap and putting it on again after the manner of a mechanical toy.
"Go away," hissed the guard angrily. "This is the Mayor and the Mayoress. Stand aside! Can't you see?"
Presently the Mayor and the Mayoress were snugly stowed away in the creaking hack, and it rattled away over the cobblestones.
"When does the next train get in?" I asked for the third time. He was still bowing after the departing hack.
"Eh? The next? Oh, mein herr, is it you?"
"Yes, it is still I. Is there another train soon?"
"That was Mayor Berg and his wife," he said, taking off his cap again in a sort of ecstasy. "The express stops for him, eh? Ha! It stops for no one else but our good Mayor. When he commands it to stop it stops—"
"Answer my question," I thundered, "or I shall report you to the Mayor!"