“You wish to speak to me, captain?” he asked.
“It’s just as well to you as to another. I’m only masquerading in this uniform. I am not an officer at all.”
He stared at me openmouthed in sheer amazement.
“No officer?” he stammered. “I don’t understand.”
“You soon will. There are those coming who will make it all plain to you. But having misled you purposely, I wished to tell you; that’s all.” I spoke as coolly as though I had been announcing a mere business fact.
“The soldiers who were with you?” he asked then, glancing round as if in search of them.
“They are gone,” I told him.
Then we heard a noise in the basement. Loud voices, the tramp of many feet, and a rush up the stairs.
“We’ll wait for them here,” I said to Gatrina, pointing to a room at the back of the house; and we all three went into it, Chris keeping close by her side.
“You are my prisoner, sir,” said the lieutenant.