"If one may enquire?" he said again, with polite and jovial satire. "I am as a child in your hands, and, 'pon my word, you've done uncommonly well. What happened after I was knocked over? Tell me, do. I am still left gaping at the fact that a moment ago, as it seems to me, I was crouching beside a wall waiting for a shell to wreak its vengeance upon this unfortunate city. The very next, I appear to be in clover, reclining on a most comfortable divan, and—er—er—watching you two munching your rations. Now."
They told him all that had happened with a gusto there was no denying.
"And so you see, sir, here we are," added Dick, his mouth occupied with a hunch of bread and cheese which the thoughtful Sergeant Evans had provided.
"Precisely! Here we are. Afterwards, what? That's where I'm vastly interested. We appear to have got into a charming little pickle. How do we emerge from it?"
Neither Dick nor Alec could give him the smallest indication, for they themselves were nonplussed by the curious situation into which they had tumbled. Not that they had not given vast thought to the matter; for even then Dick had risen from the divan and was staring through the window, the noise of people moving down the cobbled street having attracted him. He swung round after a while, reseated himself, and took an enormous bite from the hunch of bread he was holding.
The Commander watched him as he ate it, watched him critically and with some amusement. "Come," he said after a while. "What's the manœuvre?"
Alec shook his head violently; Dick stood up, still munching, and once more stared through the window. He did not mean to be disrespectful to his senior, but, to be precise, his thoughts were so fully occupied at that particular moment that he hardly heard the sentence. Presently he turned again.
"I'm going out, sir," he said.
"Out! Impossible! You'd be spotted," cried the officer, his joviality gone instantly.
"Hardly, sir. You see, or perhaps I should say, you will see the reason. I can speak these fellows' lingo quite a little."