Chapter Two, Part Four oh wait I know - I climb out the window and onto the roof, and try to make it to one of those intersections between train-bodies! Use sword-umbrella as a balance-keeping staff.
Not keen on damaging the private property of the train door any further,
von Fersen turns and leans against it, pausing for inspiration. Aha! He spots the window with night time France rushing past, and concludes that the only sensible option is to exit the sleeping cabin via the aforementioned blasted thing. He crosses the cabin and slides it upwards [4].
The cold air hits von Fersen like a god of the north as he sticks his head out the open window. Without checking to see if there are any approaching tunnels or other dangers, he
leaps out the window like a pouncing leopard climbs out eagerly like a hungry Scandinavian squirrel, pulling himself onto the roof with one hand and clutching his faithful umbrella-sword in the other [6]. He stands up on the roof only to see a tunnel heading rapidly his way!
He ducks in time [5] and finds himself crawling forwards on hands and knees in the freezing dark on a train hurtling across deepest France!
Gentlemanliness Increased! Espionage Pro!
Quickly aim my Mondragon rifle at one of the Germans.
And again in native tounge:
"Now now, no need for this child's play. Can't we settle this over some tea and stories of the Elk?"
If they refuse, a good warning to shot to the German we are aiming at's leg may convince them.
Get up, hopefully with grace after my dazing, and stand behind "G" with walking bat stick in hand in a menacing fashion. If they insist on taking Poland attacking, wait until Pearl Harbor, remember the time period do as Americans do and join in the battle at a crucial time.
Backed up by a
Winston Smith who has gracefully and gentlemanly risen to his feet [5],
"G" quickly ducks back behind his cabin door to retrieve his rifle and, aiming it squarely at the lead German, asks them again what is going on - surely this could be resolved over some tea? They look doubtful, but then the brave German lands the killer blow.
"And stories of the Elk?" [4+1+1 (Aided) +1 (Elk bonus)]
Pursue the fugitive commander.
The German pair lay down their umbrellas and shake hands with "G" and Smith, and small talk convivially and naturally develops between the four men as they decide to head off to wake up the butler in the tea wagon. A more gentlemanly scene would never have been seen, if it wasn't for the impatient
John Link trying desperately to pursue the Germans' commander, escaping further along down the corridor [2]. Alas, by the time the tea-seeking foursome depart and Link can pass them, von Gruber has scarpered and slammed shut the wagon door at the end of the corridor, having just enough time to turn and bolt it closed.
Tear the german off of Geen, scold him for his outrageous behavior, and run after the head German.
The eyepatch-brandishing Germanic fiend cannot escape all of our gentlemen spies however! William Wellington, one of two renowned duellists in the sleeping cabin von Gruber has just heroically fled, tears the surviving henchman off his companion McGeenyton [3], hastily offers a disparaging remark on the appropriateness of his behaviour [3], and tears out of the cabin in a manner akin to that of the hunted hare!
Forcing open the door separating the two train wagons with his top hat, Wellington is in hot pursuit of the fiendish and impolite von Gruber - in such a rush in fact [6] that the door swings shut after him with a force that dazes the closely following Link when it smacks him on his noble brow!
Draw my sword and challenge this German scum to a duel.
In the room where Wellington has left a solitary and unfortunate German with McGeenyton, this latter gentleman speaks [4].
"Care for a duel, kind sir?"
It is an offer the German cannot refuse, for he is an honourable man.
As the challengee, the German has the right to choose the place and the weapons for the fight; this is why, two minutes later, McGeenyton finds himself clambering up the outside of a train wagon in the dead of the cold French night holding a rapier, as he and the German get to their positions atop the speeding train to fight a duel.
Von Gruber slams shut the door behind him at the opposite end of the wagon to where McGeenyton and his henchman are just about to exit for more honourable purposes than mere fleeing and hurriedly traverses the next wagon. Wellington is in hot pursuit, and the dazed Link mere seconds behind, as von Gruber leaves this second wagon, opens the far door in great haste, and surveys the situation for the briefest of moments.
He leaps onto the intersection between this carriage and the next and instinctively ducks from the whooshing sound the train makes as it enters a short tunnel. Everything goes black but for the reflected lights of the train corridors whizzing past in the night and then all of a sudden the air turns fresher again and the train is out under the night sky. The German checks the door window behind to see that Wellington is not too close, and then jumps to reach the train roof and haul himself up. He clambers to his feet, and comes face to face with von Fersen.
“En garde!”
Having crawled across the sleeping wagon and leapt across the looming gap between the two train carriages, the Swede is ready for him as he stands. Behind von Gruber a great looming shape drifts across the half moon in the distance.
In this section of the train there are three carriages - north to south, they go 1, 2, 3.
The sleeping wagon where the gentlemen all started is wagon 2.
Von Fersen is face to face with the evil Eyepatch von Gruber on the roof of carriage 3.
Wellington is not far behind von Gruber; Link is not too far behind von Gruber - they are both in the carriage next along from their sleeping wagon, carriage 3, under von Fersen and von Gruber, in fact.
"G", Smith, and two Germans have just gone off for tea, probably in carriage 1. It would make sense for the exclusive tea wagon to be placed next to the Gentleman Class sleeping wagon.
McGeenyton and a German are just climbing on to the roof of the sleeping wagon, carriage 2, for a duel.
Hope that's clear. The train, of course, is heading south.