They had arrived at a busy hour, when the platforms were crowded with passengers and luggage. A train had just come in, and around it the bustle was at its height, and the confusion most bewildering.
“Wait for me here,” said Mr Bunker; “I shall be back in a minute.”
He started in the direction of the cloak-room, and then, doubling back through the crowd, walked down the platform and stopped opposite a luggage-van. An old gentleman, beside himself with irritation, was struggling with the aid of a porter to collect his luggage, and presently he left the pile he had got together and made a rush in the direction of a large portmanteau that was just being tumbled out. Instantly Mr Bunker picked up a handbag from the heap and walked quickly off with it.
“Here you are, Baron,” he said, as he came up to his [pg 97] friend. “I find there is something else I must do, so do you mind holding this bag for a few minutes? If you will walk up and down in front of the refreshment-rooms here, I’ll find you more easily. Is it troubling you too much?”
“Not vun bit, Bonker. I am in your sairvice.”
He put the bag into the Baron’s hand with his pleasantest smile, and turned away. Rounding a corner, he came cautiously back again through the crowd and stepped up to a policeman.
“Keep your eye on that man, officer,” he said, in a low confidential voice, and an air of quiet authority, “and put your plain clothes’ men on his track. I know him for one of the most dangerous anarchists.”
The man started and stared hard at the Baron, and presently that unconscious nobleman, pacing the platform in growing wonder at Mr Bunker’s lengthy absence, and looking anxiously round him on all sides, noticed with surprise that a number of quietly dressed men, with no apparent business in the station, were eyeing him with, it seemed to him, an interest that approached suspicion. In time he grew annoyed, he returned their glances with his haughtiest and most indignant look, and finally, stepping up to one of them, asked in no friendly voice, “Vat for do you vatch me?”
The man returned an evasive answer, and passing one of his fellow-officers, whispered, “Foreign; I was sure of it.”
At last the Baron could stand it no longer, and laying the bag down by the door of the refreshment-room, [pg 98] turned hastily away. On the instant Mr Bunker, who had watched these proceedings from a safe distance, cried in a loud and agonised voice, “Down with your men, sergeant! Down, lie down! It will explode in twenty seconds!”