"That’s true," said Burton, feeling "warmer" than ever. The foreigner was evidently quite unsuspicious, or he would not have mentioned the motor-cycle. "We have excellent roads in England," he added, with a fishing intention. "Zat is quite right; but zey are perhaps not so good as our roads in France, eh?" "Your roads are magnificent, it’s true; still--what do you say to the Dover Road?" "Ah! Ze Dover Road; yes, it is very good, ever since ze Roman times, eh? Yes; I have travelled often on ze Dover Road, from Dover to Chatham, and vice versa. Viz zis bag!" Burton looked hard at the bag. He wished it would open. One peep, he was sure, would be enough to convict this amiable Frenchman. "I have somezink in zis bag," the Frenchman went on in a confidential tone--"somezink great, somezink magnificent,--_éclatant_ as we say; somezink vat make a noise in ze vorld." He tapped the bag affectionately. Burton tingled; he would have liked to take the man by the throat and denounce him as a scoundrel. But perhaps if he were patient the confiding foreigner would open the bag. "Indeed!" he said. "Yes; a noise zat shall make ze hair stand on end. Ha! ha! Ah! you English. You are ze great inventors. Your Sims, your Edvards, your Rowland--ah! zey are great, zey are honoured by all ze crowned heads in ze vorld. Zat is quite right! I tell you! ... No; it is late. You shall be in Ostend, sir?" "Yes." "Zen you shall see, you shall hear, vat a great sensation I shall make. Now it gets dark; if you shall pardon me, I vill take a little sleep until ve arrive. Zen!..." He lifted his hat again, and withdrew to a deck chair, where he propped the bag carefully under his head and was soon asleep. V Burton strolled up and down the deck, impatient for the boat to make the port. He was convinced: the man was French; he was tall, urbane, and bald; he rode a motor-cycle; he knew the Dover Road; he guarded his bag as something precious, and it contained something that was going to make a noise in the world. What so likely to do that as Micklewright’s explosive! One thing puzzled Burton; the man’s allusion to English inventors--Sims, Edwards, Rowland--who were they? Burton subscribed to a good many scientific magazines, and kept closely in touch with recent inventions; but he did not recall any of these names. It flashed upon him that the Frenchman, rendered suspicious by his fishing questions, had mentioned the names as a blind; he had spoken of Sims, Edwards and Rowland when his mind was really full of Micklewright. "If that’s your game, it won’t wash," he thought.