“She doesn’t like Germans.”
“Ah, so?”
George looked down pointedly at the Sergeant’s hands. “I understand her feelings.”
“Easy, chum.”
The Sergeant smiled enigmatically. “You understand her feelings? I do not think so.”
The sentry came in, gave the Sergeant a key with a word of explanation, and went out again.
The Sergeant put the key in his pocket and poured himself a glass of plum brandy. “And now,” he said, “we must think what is to be done. Your little friend is safely in a room upstairs. I think we must ask you also to stay, Mr. Carey. It is not that I do not trust you but that, at the moment, because you do not understand, you are feeling that you would like to destroy the Corporal and me. In two days, perhaps, when the Corporal and I have finished arranging our business, you may go.”
“Do you intend to keep me here by force?”
“Only if you are not wise and do not wish to stay.”
“Aren’t you forgetting why I came here?”