But hold on, my lord is speaking."
"Find out, one of you," he said briefly, "when the next train goes to
Aix. I mean to push this through to the bitter end. You will be
careful, sergeant, to bring your prisoner along with you."
"_Merci bien!_ I do not want you or any one else to teach me my duty,"
replied the gendarme, very stiffly. It was clear that his sympathies
were all with the other side.
"A prisoner, am I?" cried the Colonel, gaily. "Not much. But I shall
make no difficulties. I am willing enough to go with you. When is it
to be?"
"Nine fifty-one; due at Aix at 10.22," Tiler reported, and we
proceeded to pass the time, some twenty minutes, each in his own way.
Lord Blackadder paced the platform with feverish footsteps, his rage
and disappointment still burning fiercely within him. The Colonel
invited the two gendarmes to the _buvette_, and l'Echelle followed
him. I was a little doubtful of that slippery gentleman; although I
had bought him, as I thought, the night before, I never felt sure of
him. He had joined our party, had travelled with us, and seemed on our
side in the recent scuffle, here he was putting himself at the beck
and call of his own employer.
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