"Oh, take me with you, Robert!" she cried. "Don't leave me!"
He looked down at her, then, without speaking, he lifted her into the already moving train and sprang in after her.
"There is nothing to be afraid of, little Nora," he said tenderly. "I will bring you home safe and sound."
The word "home" swept aside the last barricades of her self-control. She flung herself into his arms weeping wildly and thankfully.
* * * * *
As the dawn broke, Nora stood at the prow of the vessel that was bearing her homewards, and welcomed the white bulwarks of England as they rose in majestic sovereignty out of the morning mists. Her eyes filled. She could have stretched out her arms in her pride and joy, and the whole world that she had left behind had vanished like some delirious dream.
Miles away, in a quiet field on the outskirts of Berlin, two men faced each other at ten paces' distance, and awaited the signal. It was given, and two puffs of smoke issued from the outstretched weapons, and curled slowly upwards into the frosty air. One of the men reeled and fell, and lay quiet, with his face in the grass.
They picked him up tenderly, and as they bore him thence his fading eyes opened.
"Do—not frighten her," he whispered. "Don't let her think that it is anything—serious——"
In the same instant, Nora had turned joyously to the man at her side.