Then I thought of the jewel-box.

“Where’s my jewel-box?” I demanded vehemently from the guard, as though he had stolen it.

He turned to me.

“What’s that you’re carrying?” he replied.

All the time I had been carrying the jewel-box.  At the moment of the collision I must have instinctively clutched it, and my grasp had not slackened.  I had carried it to the waiting-room and back without knowing that I was doing so!

This sobered me once more.  But I would not stay on the scene.  I was still obsessed by the desire to catch the steamer.  And abruptly I set off walking down the line.  I left the crowd and the confusion and the ruin, and hastened away bearing the box.

I think that I must have had no notion of time, and very little notion of space.  For I arrived at the harbour without the least recollection of the details of my journey thither.  I had no memory of having been accosted by any official of the railway, or even of having encountered any person at all.  Fortunately it had ceased to rain, and the wind, though still strong, was falling rapidly.

Except for a gatekeeper, the bleak, exposed pier had the air of being deserted.  The lights of the town flickered in the distance, and above them rose dimly the gaunt outlines of the fortified hills.  In front was the intemperate and restless sea.  I felt that I was at the extremity of England, and on the verge of unguessed things.  Now, I had traversed about half the length of the lonely pier, which seems to curve right out into the unknown, when I saw a woman approaching me in the opposite direction.  My faculties were fatigued with the crowded sensations of that evening, and I took no notice of her.  Even when she stopped to peer into my face I thought nothing of it, and put her gently aside, supposing her to be some dubious character of the night hours.  But she insisted on speaking to me.

“You are Carl Foster,” she said abruptly.  The voice was harsh, trembling, excited, yet distinguished.

“Suppose I am?” I answered wearily.  How tired I was!

“I advise you not to go to Paris.”

I began to arouse my wits, and I became aware that the woman was speaking with a strong French accent.  I searched her face, but she wore a thick veil, and in the gloom of the pier I could only make out that she had striking features, and was probably some forty years of age.  I stared at her in silence.

“I advise you not to go to Paris,” she repeated.

“Who are you?”

“Never mind.  Take my advice.”

“Why?  Shall I be robbed?”

“Robbed!” she exclaimed, as if that was a new idea to her.  “Yes,” she said hurriedly.  “Those jewels might be stolen.”

“How do you know that I have jewels?”

“Ah!  I—­I saw the case.”

“Don’t trouble yourself, madam; I shall take particular care not to be robbed.  But may I ask how you have got hold of my name?”