The Christmas Conundrum (20 Thrillers in One Edition). Артур Конан Дойл

first gentleman in Europe, as he was justly called. I respect his memory. He was a wit, and the friend of wits; he was lavishly generous, and disdained poor pitiful economy. He dressed well, sir; he looked well, sir; he was a gentleman of perfect manners. Sir, this is a slovenly and shaoby age. When I was young, no gentleman ever travelled without at least two dozen cravats, four whalebone stiffeners, and an iron to smooth the tie, and produce a thin equal edge to the muslin. There were no less, sir, than eighteen modes of putting on the cravat; there was the cravate à la Diane, the cravate à l'Anglaise, the cravate au naeud Gordieu, the cravate——"

      The train jolted, moved on, slackened, stopped.

      The major thrust his head out of window, and shouted to a passing guard: " Where are we?"

      "Twenty miles from Lyons—Fort Rouge, monsieur."

      "What is the matter? Anything the matter?"

      An English voice answered from the next window: "A wheel broken, they tell us. We shall have to wait two hours, and transfer the luggage."

      "Good Heaven!" I could not help exclaiming.

      Levison put his head out of window. "It is but too true," he said, drawing it in again; " two hours' delay at least, the man says. Tiresome, very—but such things will happen on the road; take it coolly. We'll have some coffee and another rubber. We must each look to our own luggage; or, if Mr. Blamyre goes in and orders supper, I'll see to it all. But, good gracious, what is that shining out there by the station lamps? Hei, monsieur!" (to a passing gendarme whom the major had hailed), "what is going on at the station?"

      "Monsieur," said the gendarme, saluting, "those are soldiers of the First Chasseurs; they happened to be at the station on their way to Châlons; the station-master has sent them to surround the luggage-van, and see to the transfer of the baggage. No passenger is to go near it, as there are government stores of value in the train."

      Levison spat on the ground and muttered execrations to himself:—I supposed at French railways.

      "By Jove, sir, did you ever see such clumsy carts?" said Major Baxter, pointing to two country carts, each with four strong horses, that were drawn up under a hedge close to the station; for we had struggled on as far as the first turn-table, some hundred yards from the first houses of the village of Fort Rouge.

      Levison and I tried very hard to get near our luggage, but the soldiers sternly refused our approach. It gave me some comfort, however, to see my chests transferred carefully, with many curses on their weight. I saw no sign of government stores, and I told the major so.

      "Oh, they're sharp," he replied, "dooced sharp. Maybe the empress's jewels—one little package only, perhaps; but still not difficult to steal in a night confusion."

      Just then there was a shrill piercing whistle, as if a signal. The horses in the two carts tore into a gallop, and flew out of sight.

      "Savages, sir; mere barbarians still," exclaimed the major; "unable to use railways even now we've given them to them."

      "Major!" said his wife, in a voice of awful reproof, "spare the feelings of these foreigners, and remember your position as an officer and a gentleman."

      The major rubbed his hands, and laughed uproariously.

      "A pack of infernal idiots," cried Levison; "they can do nothing without soldiers; soldiers here, soldiers there, soldiers everywhere."

      "Well, these precautions are sometimes useful, sir," said Mrs. B.; "France is a place full of queer characters. The gentleman next you any day at a table d'hôte may be a returned convict. Major, you remember that case at Cairo three years ago?"

      "Cairo, Julia my dear, is not in France."

      "I know that, major, I hope. But the house was a French hotel, and that's the same thing." Mrs. B. spoke sharply.

      "I shall have a nap, gentlemen. For my part, I'm tired," said the major, as we took our places in the Marseilles train, after three hours' tedious delay. "The next thing will be the boat breaking down, I suppose."

      "Major, you wicked man, don't fly out against Providence," said his wife.

      Levison grew eloquent again about the Prince Regent, his diamond epaulettes, and his inimitable cravats; but Levison's words seemed to lengthen, and gradually became inaudible to me, until I heard only a soothing murmur, and the rattle and jar of the wheels.

      Again my dreams were nervous and uneasy. I imagined I was in Cairo, threading narrow dim streets, where the camels jostled me and the black slaves threatened me, and the air was eavy with musk, and veiled faces watched me from latticed casements above. Suddenly a rose fell at my feet. I looked up, and a face like my Minnie's, only with large liquid dark eyes like an antelope's, glanced forth from behind a water-vase and smiled. At that moment, four Mamelukes appeared, riding down the street at full gallop, and came upon me with their sabres flashing. I dreamed I had only one hope, and that was to repeat the talismauic words of my letter-locks. Already I was under the hoofs of the Mamelukes' horses. I cried out with great difficulty, "Cotopaxo! Cotopaxo!" A rough shake awoke me. It was the major, looking bluff but stern.

      "Why, you're talking in your sleep!" he said; "why the devil do you talk in your sleep? Bad habit. Here we are at the breakfast-place."

      "What was I talking about?" I asked, with ill-concealed alarm.

      "Some foreign gibberish," returned the major.

      "Greek, I think," said Levison; "but I was just off too."

      We reached Marseilles. I rejoiced to see its almond-trees and its white villas. I should feel safer when I was on board ship, and my treasure with me. I was not of a suspicious temperament, but I had thought it remarkable that during that long journey from Lyons to the seaboard, I had never fallen asleep without waking and finding an eye upon me—either the major's or his wife's. Levison had slept during the last four hours incessantly. Latterly, we had all of us grown silent, and even rather sullen. Now we brightened up.

      "Hôtel de Londres! Hôtel de l'Univers! Hôtel Impérial!" cried the touts, as we stood round our luggage, agreeing to keep together.

      "Hôtel Impérial, of course," said the major; "best house."

      A one-eyed saturnine half-caste tout shrunk up to us.

      "Hôtel Impérial, sare. I am Hôtel Impérial; all full; not a bed; no—pas de tout—no use, sare!"

      "Hang it! the steamer will be the next thing to fail."

      "Steamer, sare—accident with boiler; won't start till minuit et vingt minutes—half-past midnight, sare."

      "Where shall we go?" said I, turning round and smiling at the three blank faces of my companions. "Our journey seems doomed to be unlucky. Let us redeem it by a parting supper. My telegraphing done, I am free till half-past eleven."

      "I will take you," said Levison, " to a small but very decent hotel down by the harbour. The Hôtel des Etrangers."

      "Curséd low nasty crib—gambling place!" said the major, lighting a cheroot, as he got into an open fly.

      Mr. Levison drew himself up in his punctilious way. "Sir," he said, "the place is in new hands, or I would not have recommended the house, you may rely upon it."

      "Sir," said the major, lifting his broad-brimmed white hat, "I offer you my apologies. I was not aware of that."

      "My dear sir, never mention the affair again."

      "Major, you're a hot-headed simpleton," were Mrs. B.'s last words, as we drove off together.

      As we entered a bare-looking salon with a dinner-table in the middle and a dingy billiard-table at one end, the major said to me, "I shall go and wash and dress for the theatre, and then take a stroll while you do your telegraphing. Go up first, Julia, and see the rooms."

      "What slaves we poor women are!" said Mrs. B., as she sailed out.

      "And I," said Levison, laying down his railway rug, "shall go out and try and do some business before the shops shut.