Evening star., 1925-03-27
Continued from Yesterdays Star.l

continued from 1eSterOdy Sldi.i
Some hours later the tedious jour
ney was drawing to it's close, / had
lost my travelling companions at the
Swiss frontier, and the train was now
running down the Rhone Valley in
the darkness. 1t would soon be at
Lausanne, where I had to change for
Geneva
I remember that my mind, reused, l
suppose, by the conversation over
lunch, dwelt vaguely on the European
situation. l am a very ordinary sort
of fellow and have no special knoWl-
edge OF what is styled foreign pol
itics. I read the newspapers pretty
regularly at my club, and occasional
ly chat for half an hour over a glass
of sherry with old Thompson, whose
special foible it is to carry about
some new and sensational rumor OF
another crisis in Paris, Berlin or
Moscow. I was, ] must own, astonlsheo
at the utter and entire surrender of
Germany, but there seemed TO be no
doubt whatever as to the facts. L
glanced at the newspapers which were
scattered about the carriage. All the
news agencies agreed. Germany had
capitulated and was advertising the
fact broadcast.
By this time I had reached Lau-
same, where / had an hour to wait.
bought a Swiss paper, and the news
it contained confirmed and amplified
the earlier reports. The paper gave
the text of a proclamation issued by
the German government, which con-
sisted in an eXhortation to all Ger
man citizens to resume work imme-
diately in the Ruhr. The war had been
forced on the German people by a bad
ruler, but that did not free them from
responsibility. They must pay just
n,~I.. l.
way could they hope to re-establish
the prosperity of their country. Let
every man put his shoulder to the
wheel, and by united effort pay the
former enemies of Germany, and thus
insure peaceful relations in the fu-
ture.
thought that was to be alone IN
my carriage between Lausanne and
Geneva, but, as the train was NOV
ing, another traveller scrambled up
the steps, and, tripping over the top
one, fell fiat on his face in the cor
ridor, where i happened to be stand
ing, casting at my feet a small dis
patch case, which burst open and
scattered its contents over the floor.
With many apologies, he picked
himself up, and l saw that he was a
short, dark man between so and 80.
He was of the southern French type.
with the brownest eyes I have ever
seen, eager and sanguine Of express
sion, the obvious countryman of Tar
tarin and D'Artagnan.
/ helped him to collect his belong
ings, which he packed roughly into
the dispatch case. He was profuse
in his gratitude, and explained that
he had mistaken the time Of the
train.
AS he was somewhat dusty about
the knees a result of his accident,
! offered him the loan of q clothes
brush from my own suit case, which
he accepted and retired to make him
self presentable, carrying his dispatch
case with him. When he had gone
realized that the door of the coach
was probably still open. and l went
out to close it.
On returning to my compartment
trod on something hard, which felt
like a coin. l stopped down and picked
up what proved instead to be a small,
round disc, made Of copper, with a
hole in it for threading upon q. chain
or key ring. Stamped on one side of
it were the letters "R F." and on the
other side number 1T"
was still examining this when the
traveller returned and handed me back
my brush, with renewed thanks. AS
he did so he noticed what was hold
ing IN my hand.
Pardon, monsieur" he said, but I
think you have found something
which belongs to me"
I assented and handed II to him He
looked at 1t sharply and then put it
in his waistcoat pocket.
We talked together for the hour
which the train took to reach Geneva.
I discovered him to be an extraor-
dinarily pleasant and interesting COM
ranion. He was a French officer who
had served right through the war and
been wounded at Eerdun, and, when
ne discovered that I, too, had seen
service on the western front, we soon
found enough to talk about.
After exchanging various war
"reminiscences, 1 remembered the
news in the paper and congratulated
him on the triumph of the French
policy.
For a moment his eyes lit with
interest, and from a man of his type
and origin one expected at once a
stream of vivid comment and ex-
clamation. To my surprise, however,
he did not very readily respond. He
was clearly about to do go, and then
suddenly appeared to pull himself up,
almost as though some one had tap
ped him on the shoulder and told
him to be careful.
'It is a complete success" I ven