At a sign from the leader our driver drew to one side and pulled up.
I thrust the barrel of the pistol hard against Bremenhof’s side. The officer recognized him, and with a salute halted his men.
“We are in a hurry and cannot delay,” I whispered.
Bremenhof returned the salute and waved his hand for the troops to pass.
The officer ordered his men to make room for the sleigh and we dashed on at a high speed.
“Good,” I said, suppressing a sigh of relief. “You have learnt your lesson, I see.”
CHAPTER XXVIII
FLIGHT
THE meeting with the troops proved to be an invaluable incident.
There had been a tense moment when the question whether Bremenhof would attempt treachery still hung in the balance. A moment more thrilling than any I had ever known in my life.
With his lame and craven submission, however, a change seemed to come in everything. That I could compel him to cross the city in broad daylight when hundreds of his police and soldiers were swarming everywhere, and so frighten him as to prevent him raising an alarm, had seemed in anticipation little more than the merest forlorn hope.