Apparently, at last I had reached the headquarters of the mysterious general.

I had arrived at what, for a suspected spy, was an inopportune moment.

The Germans themselves had been surprised, or somewhere south of us had met with a reverse, and the air was vibrating with excitement and something very like panic.

Outside, at great speed and with sirens shrieking, automobiles were arriving, and I could hear the officers shouting: "Die Englischen kommen!" To make their reports they flung themselves up the steps, the electric torches, like bull's-eye lanterns, burning holes in the night.

Seeing a civilian under guard, they would stare and ask questions.