"Of course I will. And your friend?"
"As English as I am. This is my pal, Remi Pariset," he said to Granger.
"I am delighted to meet you," said Granger, bowing, "even though our acquaintance should prove of the shortest."
Pariset, asking his fellow lieutenant to delay, ran to the Colonel, and returned immediately with him.
"I beg a thousand pardons, gentlemen," said the Colonel. "I am desolated at the injustice I have unwittingly done you. Pray accept my apologies."
"Not at all, Colonel," said Granger. "Appearances were against us. You were quite justified in your suspicions; it was our misfortune that we couldn't change our dress on the way.... I've had many a close shave," he added in an undertone to Kenneth, "but was never quite so near my quietus."
"I was feeling rather rummy," Kenneth confessed: "a queer feeling, not exactly fear; a sort of emptiness."
When the troopers learnt the truth, they broke into cries of "Vivent les Anglais! Vive l'Angleterre!" and the prisoners found themselves the idols of the camp. They were invited to join the officers at lunch, and ate with good appetites, having had no food but rye bread and beer since the previous midday. The officers drank their health with hilarity when Granger had related the trick by means of which they had escaped from Cologne, and Kenneth was toasted with embarrassing fervour.
"The bridge! That will be a clincher," whispered Granger in his ear.
Kenneth's French was not so good as his German, but he managed, even though haltingly, to convey to his interested auditors the gist of the scheme he had overheard. The officers were much concerned. None of them was able to identify the place from the bare description which was all that Kenneth could give them. The bridge was clearly not in the line of the Germans' probable advance; its destruction could only be meant to assist them. But the clues, slight though they were, must be followed up, and the Colonel declared that he would communicate with headquarters about the matter.