"I congratulate you, sir," said the foreigner in English, politely lifting his hat. Burton almost jumped when he saw that the uncovered crown was hairless.
"Thank you, sir," he replied, in some confusion. "It was lucky I caught the boat."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he thought, "What an idiotic thing to say!" and his cheeks grew red.
"Zat ze boat caught you, you vould say?" said the foreigner, smiling. "But your vessel is a hydro-aeroplane, I zink so? Zere vas no danger zat you sink?"
"Well, I don’t know. With a swell on, like this, it wouldn’t be any safer than a cock-boat; and in any case, it wouldn’t be too pleasant to drift about, perhaps for days, without food."
"Zat is quite right; ven ze sea is choppy, you feed ze fishes; ven it is calm, you have no chops. Ha! ha! zat is quite right. You do not understand ze choke?" he added, seeing that Burton did not smile.
"Oh yes! yes!" cried Burton, making an effort. "You speak English well, sir."
"Zank you, yes. I have practised a lot. I ask questions--yes, and ven zey ask you chust now vat accident bring you down, I do not quite understand all about it."
"It was quite an ordinary thing," said Burton, rather uncomfortably. The explanation he had given to the questioners was vague; he was loth to tell a deliberate lie. "Do you know anything about petrol engines, sir?"
"Oh yes, certainly. I ride on a motor-bicycle. One has often trouble viz ze compression."
"That’s true," said Burton, feeling "warmer" than ever. The foreigner was evidently quite unsuspicious, or he would not have mentioned the motor-cycle. "We have excellent roads in England," he added, with a fishing intention.
"Zat is quite right; but zey are perhaps not so good as our roads in France, eh?"
"Your roads are magnificent, it’s true; still--what do you say to the Dover Road?"
"Ah! Ze Dover Road; yes, it is very good, ever since ze Roman times, eh? Yes; I have travelled often on ze Dover Road, from Dover to Chatham, and vice versa. Viz zis bag!"
Burton looked hard at the bag. He wished it would open. One peep, he was sure, would be enough to convict this amiable Frenchman.
"I have somezink in zis bag," the Frenchman went on in a confidential tone--"somezink great, somezink magnificent,--_éclatant_ as we say; somezink vat make a noise in ze vorld."