“It is about time!� declared Saidee Isaacs as she pressed herself into a corner of the leather cushions and pulled her hat down over her eyes.
Fay examined his wrist with concern. A red band showed there. He worked his fingers, stared at them,
then brought forth a cigarette from his pocket and, declining the light offered by MacKeenon, struck his own match upon the bottom of his heel.
Dawn crimsoned the drawn shades of the compartment. The guard appeared at a station and took the inspector’s orders for a basket of rather frugal proportions. The three ate breakfast in silence. The last scrap was finished by MacKeenon, who remarked dryly:
“Three and six! A minds the time when it was two and four.�
Fay took this statement to mean that the inspector had spent rather more money than he expected for the breakfast. He watched the thrifty Scot make an entry in a notebook. His eyes wandered from this to Saidee Isaacs. She had pressed her face to a window and was peering out. She turned and held the shade up for him.
He caught a streaky glimpse of English meadows and estates. The trees were very green. The lawns sloped down to the rails like great seas of velvet. Hedges and well-trimmed clumps and flower-crescents flickered by.
Fay flashed her a quick signal. He could escape! MacKeenon might be bowled over. The door could be broken open. There was all of the North Country to hide in. A flying leap from the train would take him from the grasping hand of the Yard. The girl shook her head. She had a plan which she could not reveal to him. She steadied her eyes and smiled a slow, enigmatic smile of caution now, but freedom later.
MacKeenon glanced at his watch. It was evident that the train would be late. This was such an unusual thing for the Royal Scotsman that he made inquiry of the guard as the great station at Peterborough was reached.
The guard explained the matter by mentioning troop movements back from France. The policing of Germany consisted of a mere handful of the former force.