"When is the test to take place?"
"If everything goes well, one week from yesterday, at noon."
"You must use great care. The Germans are on their guard. Here is something that will interest you."
Marbeau took the order and read it carefully.
"If the magazines are flooded," Delcassé pointed out, "we can do nothing."
"It will be something to have occasioned the destruction of so much ammunition," Marbeau rejoined; "but we are not taking that chance. All our instruments will be tuned and tested before we start. The Germans will hear those signals but once."
A little tremour passed across Delcassé's face.
"You believe in this invention?" he asked. "You have investigated it?"
Marbeau shrugged his shoulders.
"I know nothing more of it than you do, sir. M. Vard tells me nothing, shows me nothing, persists in working alone. He is most jealous of it. But yes—I believe; when I remember the twenty-fifth of September, I cannot but believe!"