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THE LAVA-STREAM
"For God's sake, if you are an Englishman, help me!"
That cry of despair, so subdued yet piercing in its intensity, reached Arthur Dalroy as he pressed close on the heels of an all-powerful escort in Lieutenant Karl von Halwig, of the Prussian Imperial Guard, at the ticket-barrier of the Friedrich Strasse Station on the night of Monday, 3rd August 1914.
Von Halwig was in front, impartially cursing and shoving aside the crowd of police and railway men. A gigantic ticket-inspector, catching sight of the Guardsman, bellowed an order to "clear the way;" but a general officer created a momentary diversion by choosing that forbidden exit. Von Halwig's heels clicked, and his right hand was raised in a salute, so Dalroy was given a few seconds wherein to scrutinise the face of the terrified woman who had addressed him. He saw that she was young, an Englishwoman, and undoubtedly a lady by her speech and garb.
"What can I do for you?" he asked.
"Get me into a train for the Belgian frontier. I have plenty of money, but these idiots will not even allow me to enter the station."
He had to decide in an instant. He had every reason to believe that a woman friendless and alone, especially a young and good-looking one, was far safer in Berlin--where some thousands of Britons and Americans had been caught in the lava-wave of red war now flowing unrestrained from the Danube to the North Sea--than in the train which would start for Belgium within half-an-hour. But the tearful indignation in the girl's voice--even her folly in describing as "idiots" the hectoring jacks-in-office, any one of whom might have understood her--led impulse to triumph over saner judgment.
"Come along! quick!" he muttered. "You're my cousin, Evelyn Fane!"
With a self-control that was highly creditable, the young lady thrust a hand through his arm. In the other hand she carried a reticule. The action surprised Dalroy, though feminine intuition had only displayed common-sense.
"Have you any luggage?" he said.
Von Halwig turned at the barrier to insure his English friend's safe passage.
"Hallo!" he cried. Evidently he was taken aback by the unexpected addition to the party.
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