The man hesitated, but two German privates who were walking past turned their heads and seeing that the order came from one of their officers instantly leapt into action, so the Belgian followed suit; the three of them cornered the unfortunate Jacqueline and while Gregory stood placidly smoking on the pavement the policeman brought her back to him.
'Thank you, officer,' said Gregory. 'I don't think she will try to run away again.'
'Do you wish to prefer any charge against this young woman?' asked the policeman.
'Not for the moment,' Gregory replied. 'You may leave us now while I talk to her, but if she gives any trouble I shall have to ask you to take her to the police-station.'
When the Belgian had retired Gregory looked at the white-faced, frightened girl who was now standing meekly in front of him. 'Enfin, ma petite Jacqueline,' he said quietly, 'I hope you appreciate that by trying to run away you nearly got yourself into very serious trouble. I take it that you do not wish to see the inside of a prison, but it would be easy for me to have you put into one. I could charge you with soliciting, or say that you had stolen my money, and as we Germans are now masters of Brussels my word would be taken in preference to yours. I could also, if I wished, have you sent to a concentration-camp in Germany—which you would find even more unpleasant. But I do not wish to do any of these horrid things. Instead, I am prepared to give you a handsome present which will buy you at least half a dozen little hats, if only you will be a sensible girl and tell me what happened after I left Brussels.'
Jacqueline was a sensible girl. Although she loathed the Germans, this one seemed quite prepared to treat her very generously and it did not appear that any question of betraying her country was involved in giving him particulars of past events; so, after a moment, she said:
'Let me see, now, you left Brussels on the Thursday, didn't you, to go to the bedside of your dying aunt?
But that was just a story to enable you to get back into Germany and join your regiment; because it was in the early hours of the following morning that the Blitzkrieg broke.'
'Yes, yes,' said Gregory. 'Never mind about me.'
'Be patient,' she admonished him with a sudden show of spirit. 'If I am to tell you things properly I must get the dates right. Naturally, we were all terribly worried and the first air raid was very frightening, although none of the bombs fell anywhere near us. Now, would it have been on the Monday or the Tuesday that the wicked-looking Russian gentleman came to the flat very late at night? It must have been between one and two o'clock in the morning, and he got us all out of bed.'
'Never mind about him, said Gregory impatiently; 'it is about Madame that I wish to hear.'
Jacqueline stamped her neat little foot. 'But I'm telling you— as quickly as I can, and I'm trying to remember if it was on the Tuesday or the Wednesday that Madame packed and went away.'
'Went away?' cried Gregory, and the street seemed to reel around him. 'Do you mean—do you mean that she wasn't killed by the bomb that destroyed the whole building?'
'Mais non!' She stared at him with wildly open eyes. 'Madame had left Brussels days before. Yes, I'm certain now, it was on the Monday night that the Russian gentleman knocked us up, then first thing on Tuesday morning Madame gave us a month's wages and went off, bag and baggage, saying that Cook and I could remain on in the apartment if we liked.'
'Thank God!' murmured Gregory. 'Oh, thank God!'
'It seems, then, that you were much more interested in Madame than you were in me, Monsieur Pierre?'
remarked Jacqueline pertly.
He smiled and nodded. 'Yes. Madame is my wife—or at least she will be the moment that she can get her divorce!'
Jacqueline frowned. 'She, too, then, was a German spy and not a Norwegian lady at all. I would never have believed it of her.'
'That, my young friend, is none of your business,' Gregory said somewhat sharply, as he produced his pocket-book and took out a five-hundred-franc note. 'And now, please, you will give me the letter that Madame left for me.'
Jacqueline had not meant to say anything about the letter, but with considerable astuteness he had spiked her guns by implying that there had been a definite understanding that Madame should leave a letter for him, and she had it with her in her bag. If she denied all knowledge of it and he took her to the police-station to have her searched she might find herself in a pretty mess when it was discovered; so she swiftly decided that she had better not play any tricks with this particular German and opening her bag she handed it to him.
He ripped it open and read:
Queen Wilhelmina's flight and the news that General Winkelman proposes to surrender in a few hours have affected the situation here, so 1 am moving to Ghent. You will find me at the Hotel de la Poste or if there are no rooms to be had 1 will leave my address with the manager there. God keep you and protect you, my darling. All my love, Erika.
'Thank you,' said Gregory, passing over the five-hundred-franc note. 'You were right about the day Madame left, as this letter is dated Tuesday the 14th. How long after that was it that you were bombed?'
'That was on the Thursday night. The Germans had been bombing the neighbourhood of the Palace for some days. Poor Cook was killed but I had a very lucky escape. I spent the evening at home with my father and mother and they would not let me go back through the streets while the air-raid was going on, so I didn't know anything about it until the following morning.'
'Good,' said Gregory. 'I'm sorry about Cook; she was a decent old soul; but let's hope that your luck continues through this wretched war; then you'll be able to tell your grandchildren how once upon a time you shared your pantry with a German Staff-Colonel and cleaned his silver for him while he went out to make love to your mistress. Au revoir, ma petite Jacqueline, and take good care of yourself.' With a smart salute he turned away and set off down the street, beaming with happiness at the surprised passers-by.
By seven o'clock he was back at the Metropole singing as he packed his bag; by a quarter-past he was downstairs paying his bill, and by half-past he was at the Gare du Nord. To travel he should have had a military railway voucher, but to secure one he would have had to have given an account of himself to the railway transport officer, which would have been a very tricky business and, in any case, caused him considerable delay, so he decided to travel without one.
Having found out that the next train for the west was leaving from Platform Number Five he took cover behind a tobacco kiosk where he could not be seen from the barrier but could keep his eye upon the train. The second that it started to move he came dashing out, frantically waving aside the Belgian railway official and German military police, who were standing at the barrier. Seeing his high rank at a glance the military police did not attempt to stop him but flung the barrier wide and he was just in time to leap on to the step of the guard's van.
Panting a little, but decidedly pleased with himself, he remained there until the train had cleared the station, then he went along the corridor to see if he could find himself a seat. The whole train was packed with troops going up to the front, but a junior officer promptly surrendered his place and thanking him politely Gregory sat down.
He could still hardly believe the marvellous news he had received about Erika, yet now, in a way, he wondered that he had so readily taken her death for granted. On considering the matter he came to the conclusion that it was the combination of circumstances which had caused him to do so. As far as he could then judge there had been no reason at all for her to leave Brussels until the Friday, and the bomb had fallen on the Thursday night at a time when she would normally have been in bed, or at least in the block, and the bomb had demolished the whole building, killing, as the old ghoul had told him, twenty people. Oblivious of his surroundings he now sat there in the crowded railway carriage positively glowing with happiness.