"Show her your capture!" ejaculated the hunchback, in a hard fierce whisper.
Horace stepped forward into the oblong of light shed by the lamp shining through the open window.
The woman advanced swiftly and looked down at the bird, which, pinned under the boy's arm, snapped at her viciously.
She looked long and movelessly.
"The Eagle of Germany!" she said at last, "hungry and exhausted, vanquished and a captive in Belgium."
"The left wing is withered," put in Croquier, but she did not seem to hear.
"Your news?" she asked, not turning to the boy but staring fixedly at the eagle, which glared at her evilly.
"M. Maubin is safe, Madame," the boy began, with a blunt desire to give good news first.
"Yes," she said, "as yet. But he will not return."
Horace jumped at this repetition of the master's prophecy.