She shook her head. “Please — give it to me — I must have it.”
Angrily he spent a couple of precious minutes searching underneath the cabin table. At last he found it and flung it to her. “Quick,” he cried; “Valeria Petrovna; and if you ever get to London, go and see Richard Eaton — National Club — tell him what happened to us all.”
Rex had descended from the front. The Duke followed him more slowly. First he had secured a long flat tin from the cabin. It contained the last of the Hoyo de Monterreys. He lit one himself and offered the tin to Rex. “Thanks,” said Rex, as he walked round the wing and called up: “Simon, where are you?”
“Coming,” sang out Simon. He had just seen Marie Lou disappear among the trees.
Rex helped him down. De Richleau proffered him the last cigar. Simon took it with a grin. “Didn’t know you’d got any left,” he said, as he lit up.
“These are the last,” smiled the Duke. “I kept them for an occasion!”
“Where’s Marie Lou?” asked Rex, anxiously.
“She — er — stayed behind at Romanovsk,” said Simon. “Didn’t you know?” He drew the first puff from the long cigar. “Magnificent stuff, these Hoyos.”
The aeroplanes droned and circled overhead. The siren of a high-powered car shrieked a warning, a moment later the men of the Ogpu, with levelled pistols, came running from the near-by road.