And he produced a batch of tickets, among which I saw coupons for reserved compartments in the wagon-lit.
Afterwards he gave some peculiar instructions to Tracy.
“You’ll recollect the map I showed you,” he said. “Crèches is two miles south of Mâcon. At about two kilomètres towards Lyons there is a short bridge over a ravine. That’s the spot. The train passes there at three-eighteen in the morning.”
“I follow you exactly,” replied his stout, bald-headed accomplice. And I was left wondering what was intended.
That evening Tracy left us and crossed to Boulogne, while two days later we went on board the morning cross-Channel steamer, where, to my surprise, we met Mr. and Mrs. Blumenfeld.
The encounter was a most unexpected and pleasant one. The great financier and his wife were on their way to the Riviera, and we were going as far as Cannes.
“I had no idea that you were going south!” laughed Rayne happily as Lola, warmly dressed in furs, stood on deck chatting with Mrs. Blumenfeld and watching the boat casting off from the quay. “It will be most delightful to travel together,” he went on. “Lola stays in Paris and we go on to the Riviera. I suppose you’ve got your sleeping berths from Paris to-night?”
“Yes,” replied the financier, and then on comparing the numbers on the coupons the old man discovered that by a coincidence his berth adjoined the one which had been taken for myself.
We travelled merrily across to Boulogne, the weather being unusually fine, and took our déjeuner together in the wagon-restaurant on the way to Paris. With old Blumenfeld was his faithful valet who looked especially after two battered old leather kitbags, a fact which, I noticed, did not escape Rudolph’s watchful eye.
Arrived at the Gare du Nord, Lola was met by an elderly Englishwoman whom I recollected as having been a guest at Overstow, and after hurried farewells drove away in a car, while we took taxis across to the big hotel at the Gare de Lyon. There we dined, and at half-past eight joined the Marseilles express upon which was a single wagon-lit.