While they were taking their leave, Captain Rondeau, leaning on his cane, was standing in the doorway, and he watched them go off with glittering eyes and compressed lips.
"Who are those people, Father Frederick?" he said to me. "Do you know them?"
"Those are Germans, captain," I answered him; "wood-cutters; I do not know any more about them, except that they are going to Toul, to work for some contractors there."
"Why do they not employ Frenchmen, these contractors?"
"Ah! because these wood-cutters are cheaper than ours; they work for half-price."
The captain frowned, and all at once he said:
"Those are spies; people that came to examine the mountain."
"Spies? How is that?" I answered, in astonishment. "What have they to spy out here? Have they any reason to meddle in our affairs?"
"They are Prussian spies," he said, dryly; "they came to take a look at our positions."
Then I believed almost that he was joking with me, and I said to him: