Herr Roque did not appear to be very amiable. He was not accustomed to have his arrangements disturbed by a pair of flyaways like these. But he was still the finished actor, for the guard’s benefit, and pretended, in words, to be overwhelmed with anxiety:
“How glad I am to see you, my young friends. I could not imagine what had become of you, and I had been seeking you high and low when I met the Burgomaster Haupt coming from his club, and he told me about the trouble at the docks. I was shocked, indeed, and it has been proved all a mistake.”
When he got the boys outside, though, he concluded a different line of talk with:
“I’ll have to tie bells around your necks when next you wander in strange pastures. You are likely to get into a neck-twisting fix with such pranks as these.”
Neither Billy nor Henri made speeches for the defense. They meekly accepted this chiding, all the time rejoicing that they were again breathing free air. It was a mile ahead of six-by-eight stone walls.
“I’m through here,” briefly announced Herr Roque at breakfast, “and after a call at Bremen I am going to restore this pair of lambs to the aviation lieutenant at Hamburg. There you can always be found when I want you.”
“That means, Herr Roque, I suppose, that we will get cards for some more vacation trips?”
“It means, young man, that if you ask no questions you will receive no false information.”
Billy was subdued for once.
At Bremen they found the hotels deserted, but the theaters and cafés full.