"I shall never be the same again," he said brokenly. "Never again. Up to then I had a chance--a sporting chance of recovery. At that moment it snapped. In a blinding flash I saw what a fool I'd been. If I'd only stayed on the platform, if I'd only gone into the restaurant car, if I'd only locked myself in a lavatory till the train had started, I should have been all right. As it was, I was caught--bending. "It was the official I'd seen in the morning all right. After a preliminary flurry of ejaculation, he locked the door behind him and began to talk.... Don't ask me what he said, because I didn't hear. When the rope's round your neck, you're apt to miss the subtleties of the hangman's charge. After a time I realised that he was asking me a question. I stared at him dully and shook my head. With a gesture of despair, he glanced at his watch. "'_Monsieur_,' he said, 'the train departs. I have sought you all day. The superintendent has told me to speak with you at all costs--to beg that you will lodge no complaint. He is desolated that your baggage was injured. It is a misfortune frightful. He cannot think how it has occurred. But to complain--no. I will tell _Monsieur_ the truth. Twice in the last half-year an English officer's baggage has gone astray. But one more complaint from your Embassy, and the superintendent will be replaced. And in ten short days, _Monsieur_, he will have won his pension.... Ah, _Monsieur_, be merciful.' "I was merciful. "I waved the fellow away and swore haltingly that I would say nothing. We mingled a few tears, and he got out as the train was moving.... "And there you are. I'd got my reprieve. Everything in the garden was lovely. But I couldn't enjoy it. My spirits failed to respond." He took the Sealyham's head between his hands and gazed into his eyes. "O Nobwell, Nob-well! Had I but seen the fool at half-past eight As he desired, he would not in the train Have put the wind up me so hellishly." There was a moment's silence. Then Jonah stepped to my brother-in-law and clapped him on the back. "Brother," he said, "I take my hat off. I tell you frankly I couldn't have done it. I wouldn't have claimed that case at Paris for a thousand pounds." Clamorously we endorsed his approval. By way of acknowledgment the hero groaned. "What you want," said I, "is a good night's rest. By mid-day to-morrow you'll be touching the ground in spots." "I shan't be touching it at all," said Berry. "If it's nice and warm, I shall have a Bath chair, which you and Jonah will propel at a convenient pace. Nobby will sit at my feet as a hostage against your careless negotiation of gradients." He drew a key from his pocket and pitched it on to a table. "I fancy," he added, "I heard them put the case on the landing: and as I propose, decorative though it is, to remove my beard, perhaps one of you wasters will fetch me a cigarette." There was a rush for the door.