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Updated: June 27, 2025
The corporal in the inhospitable third-class of the Verdun train made mental pictures of Vinson's progress south. He talked to himself aloud. "Good journey to you, you jolly dog!... In six weeks' time, if you have a thought to spare for me, you will send your news as we arranged!" The corporal began breathing warm breaths on his numbed fingers. "By Jove!
Never having done his military service, since legally he did not exist it was the cruelest mystery in our journalist's life Fandor had played his corporal's rôle by intuition, combined with a trained power of observation, Vinson's manual, and Vinson's verbal instructions.
Nichoune offered him hospitality: they became lovers. Vinson's heart was in this liaison: he persuaded himself that the chain that bound them was indissoluble. The singer's idea was to profit by it. Her demands for money were constant: she harried her lover for money. Little by little, Vinson's mother cut off supplies: the corporal, incapable of breaking with Nichoune, ran up debts in the town.
Could he, at one and the same time, trick the French Army and save it?... He had taken his precautions: he had read and reread Vinson's manual, now his manual. Mentally he had put himself in the skin of a corporal: he was letter perfect, and now he must cover himself with the mantle of Vinson for the greater glory of France!
He continued to soliloquise: "It's a deuce of a risky business I have let myself in for!... To take Vinson's place, and set off for Verdun, where his regiment is doing garrison duty, the regiment to which he has just been attached!... It would run as smooth as oil if I had done my military service, but, owing to circumstances, I have never been called up!... A pretty sort of fool I may make of myself!"...
There was this confrontation, with the absurd testimonies of the two soldiers: it had proved a ridiculous fiasco. Also, he would have great difficulty in showing conclusively that Fandor had been a certain time at Châlons under Vinson's uniform. Dumoulin, mastering his emotion, resumed his official tone. "Fandor!"...
This 'someone' is the chief spy, already in touch with Vinson, or the chief spy at Verdun, who has been warned of Vinson's arrival: the post card I received from an unknown individual has nothing on it but the indications of a route already known to me, that from Verdun to the frontier. I shall follow that route as a pedestrian, and I look forward to meeting some interesting persons on the way."
This telegram, in their usual cypher, informed her that at all costs, and at once, she must separate herself from Corporal Vinson, who was not the real Vinson, but a counter-spy!... Bobinette all but fainted from fright.... She must escape from this counter-spy!... Yet, owing to the false Vinson's insistence, she had been forced to share his room!... He did not mean to let her out of his sight, that was plain!...
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