I was afraid, and wished myself safely back in my cell, but I was more afraid of Rupert, and I kept on feeling my way until I had reached the garden.

There some one spoke to me in French, and I found my host.
"The animals have gone," he said; "all of them.

I will give you a bed now, and when it is light you shall have breakfast." I told him my orders were to leave his house at three.
"But it is murder!" he said.

With these cheering words in my ears, I thanked him, and he bid me bonne chance.
In my left hand I placed the pass, folded so that the red seal of the General Staff would show, and a match-box.

In the other hand I held ready a couple of matches.