She watched him almost anxiously.
"You do not even know!" she breathed—and it was an exclamation and not a question.
"I know what I have been told to do," he answered. "I do not ask anything else."
"Who is that?" she asked, pointing to The Rat.
"He is the friend my father sent with me," said Marco smiling. "He called him my aide-de-camp. It was a sort of joke because we had played soldiers together."
It seemed as if she were obliged to collect her thoughts. She stood with her hand at her mouth, looking down at the earth floor.
"God guard you!" she said at last. "You are very—very young!"
"But all his years," The Rat broke in, "he has been in training for just this thing. He did not know it was training, but it was. A soldier who had been trained for thirteen years would know his work."
He was so eager that he forgot she could not understand English. Marco translated what he said into German and added: "What he says is true."
She nodded her head, still with questioning and anxious eyes.