till the shops opened without missing the train for Germany.

I paid my bill and drove off to the Central Station through the dark
streets with my two bags. The clocks were striking six as I entered
under the great glass dome of the station hall.

I went straight to the booking-office, and bought a first-class ticket,
single, to Berlin. One never knows what may happen and I had several
things to do before the train went.

The bookstall was just opening. I purchased a sovereign's worth of books
and magazines, English, French and German, and crammed them into the bag
I had procured at the café. Thus laden I adjourned to the station
buffet.

There I set about executing a scheme I had evolved for leaving the
document which Semlin had brought from England in a place of safety,
whence it could be recovered without difficulty, should anything happen
to me. I knew no one in Holland save Dicky, and I could not send him the
document, for I did not trust the post. For the same reason I would not
post the document home to my bank in England: besides, I knew one could
not register letters until eight o'clock, by which hour I hoped to be
well on my way into Germany.

No, my bag, conveniently weighted with books and deposited at the
station cloak-room, should be my safe. The comparative security of
station cloak-rooms as safe deposits has long been recognized by jewel
thieves and the like and this means of leaving my document behind in
safety seemed to me to be better than any other I could think of.