Nearly all the officers spoke English, and they laughed and chatted with him freely. They told him that all the reports he had heard about the bitterness of the Germans towards the English were so many lies. Of course, they said, now they were at war they meant to fight it out to the end, but it was impossible for them to feel bitterly towards the English, with whom they had for so many years been friendly. They also pretended to speak freely of their plans, evidently with the intention of leading him to copy their example.
To his surprise, moreover, he found himself a little later in a well-appointed tent of his own, and whilst it was guarded jealously, he was surrounded with comforts which he had never expected.
It was nearly midnight, and he was just on the point of falling asleep when an officer came to him.
"Follow me," he said brusquely, and ere long he found himself again in the open, walking between lines of soldiers.
As he thought of it afterwards, his experiences that night seemed to him almost like a dream. He was passed from guard to guard, seemingly without reason, yet according to some pre-arranged plan. After what appeared to him an interminable time, he was ushered into the presence of a grave-looking military man, whose uniform bespoke the fact that he was of the highest rank.
This man was quickly joined by another, and a whispered conversation took place between them, and Bob saw that keen, searching glances were constantly directed towards himself.
"He's only a lieutenant," he heard one say.
"It's no use; he will have it so," replied the other; "after he had heard the report, he gave his orders, and there's nothing else for it."
The other shrugged his shoulders, as if impatient at something, and then Bob was again commanded to move forward to another place.
Eventually he found himself in what seemed to him like an ante-room of some apartment of extreme importance. Here he waited for nearly half an hour; still on each side of him stood a soldier, erect, motionless, silent.