And now the old professor from Liège drew all attention towards himself.
He was shaking and quivering like a jelly.
"J'ai peur!" he said simply.
"Mais non, Monsieur!" cried Jean. "It's all over now."
"Courage! courage! Pas de danger," cried everyone, encouragingly.
"It was only a ruse of the enemy, letting us go," whispered the Professor. "They will follow and shoot us from behind!"
Plaintively, as a child, he asked the fat Brussels banker to allow him to change places, and sit in front, instead of behind.
In a sudden rebound of spirits, the Red Cross lady and I laughingly sat on the back seat, and opened our parasols behind us, while the old Brussels banker, when the two fat men had exchanged seats not without difficulty, whispered to us:
"And all the while there are a hundred letters sewn up inside the cushion of the seat our friend from Liège is sitting on now!"