The Washington times., 1918-12-07
CHAPTER I.
I Seek q Bed In Rotterdam.


his head firmly. Very sorry.
saire," he said: mot a bed in ze
house" And he closed the book
with q snap.
Outside the rain came down
heavens hard. Every one who came
into the brightly lit hotel vestibule
entered with a gush OF water.
felt 1 would rather die than face
the wind-swept streets OF Rotter-
dam again.
who was now busy at the key-rack.
Haven't you really a corner? 1
wouldn't mind where 1t was, as 1t
is only for the night Come
now
Every sorry. saire. We have two
gentlemen sleeping in ze bath rooms
already. II you had reserved :"
And he shrugged his shoulders and
bent toward q visitor who was de-
manding his key.
l turned away with rage in my
heart. What n cursed fool had
been not to wire from Groningen.
had fully intended to, but the ex-
trsordInary conversation I had had
with Dick Allerton had put every
thing else out of my head. At every
hotel l had tried II had been the
same story-CoomAn's, the Mas,
the Grand. all were fun even to
the bath rooms. II had only
wired. e..
As 1 passed out into the porch
bethought myself OF the porter. A
hotel porter had helped me out of q
similar plight in Breslau once years
ago. This porter. with his red.
drink,sodden. face and tarnished
gold braid, did. not promise well. so
far as 4 Recommendation for q
lodging for the night was con-
cerned. StHl ...i a.
i suppose 1t was my mind dwell
ing ON my experience at Brsslau
that made me address the man In
German. when one has been ia
mfiiar With q foreign tongue from
ones boyBood, II requires but q
very slight mental impulse to drop
into ft. From such slight begin
nings do great enterprises spring.
II I had known the immense rami-
fication of adventure that was to
spread its roots, from that simple
question. / YerilyN believe my heart
would have failed me and would
have run forth into sfheS night and
the rain and roamed the streets TIL
morning.
Well. found myself asking the
man IN German IL he knew where
could get rom for the night.
He shot quick glance at me
from under his Redeemed eyelids.
like a Gerhan -house?" he queried.
You may hardly credit IT. but my
interview with Dieky AIlerton that
afternoon had simply driven the
war out of my mind. When one has
lived much among foreign peoples,
ones mentality slips automatically
into their skin. I was now think
ing in German-At least 90 1t seems
to me when look back upon that
night-and answered without re-
fiecting:
Il don't care where It Is as long
as / can get somewhere to sleep
out OF this Internal rain,'
"The gentleman can have a good,
clean bed at the Hotel Sixt in the
little street they call the Vos int
Tuintje, on the canal behind the
Bourse. The proprietress Is good
German, jawohl. Frau
Anna Schratt her name is The gen.
tleman need only say he comes from
Franz at the Bopparder Hof."
gave the man a gulden and bade
him get me a cab.
II was still pouring. As we rat
tied away over the glistennig cob
my mind travelled back
over the startling events of the
day. My talk with old Dicky had
given me such a mental jar that
found il at first weil-night impos-
sible to concentrate my thoughts.
That's the worst OF she'll shock.
You think you are cured, you feel
fit and well, and then suddenly the
OF your mind checks and
halts and creaks. Ever since had
left hospital convalescent after be-
ing wounded on the Somme ("gun-
shot wound in head and cerebral
the doctors called it)
had trained myself, whenever my
brain was en- pannc. to go back to
the beginning of things and work
slowly up TO the present by me-
thodical stages.
Let's see then. was
boarded" at Millbank and got three
leave; then l did a month
in the tlejOhns' bungalow in
CornwalI: there I got the letter
from Dicky Allcrton. who. before
the war. had been in partnership
with my brother. Francis. in the
motor business at Coventry. Dicky |
mad been with the naval division at
Antwerp. and was interned with
he rest Of the crowd when they |
'rossed the Dutch frontier in those
disastrous days of October. 1914
Dicky wrote from Groningen. just
4 line. Now that I was on leave,
II were fit to travel, would I come
10 Groningen and see him II
nave had n curious communication
which seems to have TO do with
poor Francis" he added. That was
all
My brain was still halting. so I
urned to Francis. Here again 7
rad to go back. Francis. rejected
m all sides for active service owing
q what he scornfully used to call
the shirkers' ailment. vaTicose
,eins." had flatIy declined to carry
m his motor business after Dicky
lad Joined up, although their firm
vas doing government work. Fin
lily. he had vanished into the NAV
Il tho war office, and all I knew
vas that he was something on the
More than this not
ven he would tell me. and when he
ilully disappeared from london
Ut "h0ht the time that 7 vas
,OpplnT he parapet with nv bat
alton Al Seuve ChaDe'le he left
ne his London chambers as his only
ddress for letters.
All. now It waB all coming back.