Stewart got heavily to his feet.
“Really,” he protested, “I wasn’t jesting——”
“Hush!” she cautioned, and suddenly Stewart saw her silhouetted against the window and knew that it was open. Then he saw her peer cautiously out, swing one leg over the sill, and let herself down outside.
“Careful!” she whispered.
In a moment he was standing beside her in the narrow street. She caught his hand and led him away close in the shadow of the wall.
The night air and the movement revived him somewhat, and by a desperate effort of will he managed to walk without stumbling; but he was still deadly tired. He knew that he was suffering from the reaction from the manifold adventures and excitements of the day, more especially the reaction from despair to hope of the last half hour, and he tried his best to shake it off, marveling at the endurance of this slender girl, who had borne so much more than he.
She went straight on along the narrow street, close in the shadow of the houses, pausing now and then to listen to some distant sound, and once hastily drawing him deep into the shadow of a doorway as a patrol passed along a cross-street.
Then the houses came to an end, and Stewart saw that they were upon a white road running straight away between level fields. Overhead the bright stars shone as calmly and peacefully as though there were no such thing as war in the whole universe, and looking up at them, Stewart felt himself tranquilized and strengthened.
“Now what?” he asked. “I warn you that I shall go to sleep on my feet before long!”
“We must not stop until we are across the frontier. It cannot be farther than half a mile.”