The Mare Nostrum made another trip from Marseilles to Salonica.
Before sailing, Ferragut hunted vainly through the Paris periodicals for fresh news of Freya. For some days past, the attention of the public had been so distracted by various other events that for the time being the spy was forgotten.
On arriving at Salonica, he made discreet inquiries among his military and marine friends in the harbor cafés. Hardly any one had ever heard the name of Freya Talberg. Those who had read it in the newspapers merely replied with indifference.
"I know who she is: she is a spy who was an actress,—a woman with a certain chic. I think that they've shot her…. I don't know certainly, but they ought to have shot her."
They had more important things to think about. A spy!… On all sides they were discovering the intrigues of German espionage. They had to shoot a great many…. And immediately they forgot this affair in order to speak of the difficulties of the war that were threatening them and their comrades-at-arms.
When Ferragut returned to Marseilles two months afterwards, he was still ignorant as to whether his former mistress was yet among the living.
The first evening that he met his old comrade, the captain, in the café of the Cannebière, he skillfully guided the conversation around until he could bring out naturally the question in the back of his mind: "What was the fate of that Freya Talberg that there was so much talk about in the newspapers before I went to Salonica?…"
The Marseillaise had to make an effort to recall her.
"Ah, yes!… The boche spy," he said after a long pause. "They shot her some weeks ago. The papers said little of her death,—just a few lines. Such people don't deserve any more…."
Ferragut's friend had two sons in the army; a nephew had died in the trenches, another, a mate aboard a transport, had just perished in a torpedo attack. The old man was passing many nights without sleeping thinking of his sons battling at the front. And this uneasiness gave a hard and ferocious tone to his patriotic enthusiasm.