Through this second doorway they passed, to find themselves ascending a slope paved only with tightly packed dirt. Glancing up the slope Sergeant Hal made out three or four stars low down in the sky beyond.
"Night time?" he queried in mild astonishment.
"Yes, señor, and you will even believe that it is the night of another day," laughed Vicente Tomba, "for you must have lived ages in the last few hours."
"It wasn't quite as bad as that," the Army boy returned graciously. "In your way, Tomba, you helped excellently to pass the time for me."
At the top of this interior slope the pair passed out through a doorway ordinarily closed by means of a stout wooden door. The pair found themselves in the yard back of Cerverra's house. At one side was an alley way leading to the street.
"I will leave you here, señor, with your gracious permission."
"Oh, no, no, Tomba! You will go with me, and still held by me, at least as far as the middle of the street."
With sullen assent the Filipino consented to this. On their way through the alley they encountered no one.
But, just as they reached the sidewalk, they were met with a sharp hail of:
"Halt!"