But now it did not seem like a cell.

Since I had last occupied it my chances had so improved that returning to the candle on the floor and the bundles of wheat was like coming home.

Though I did not believe Rupert had any authority to order me into the night at the darkest hour of the twenty-four, I was taking no chances.

My nerve was not in a sufficiently robust state for me to disobey any German.

So, lest I should oversleep, until three o'clock I paced the cell, and then, with all the terrors of a burglar, tiptoed down the stairs.
There was no light, and the house was wrapped in silence.
Earlier there had been everywhere sentries, and, not daring to breathe, I waited for one of them to challenge, but, except for the creaking of the stairs and of my ankle-bones, which seemed to explode like firecrackers, there was not a sound.