"'My colonel has a liking for prisoners,' he reported later. 'My captain's orders were to conduct oneself très comme il faut. It is always comme il faut to please the colonel. Therefore it seemed en regle to take a prisoner. I took him. Le v'la.'
"What the fellow did was to wait till the Boche next door was well asleep, then slowly remove his [pg 130] rifle, then fasten on his throat with a grip which Hirondelle understood, and finally to overpower the Boche till he was ready enough to crawl out at the muzzle of Hirondelle's rifle."
There was a stir in the little group of guides, and from the shadows Rafael's voice spoke.
"Mon colonel—pardon!"
The colonel turned sharply. "Who is that?"
"There were two Germans," spoke the voice out of the shadows.
The colonel, too astonished to answer, stared. The voice, trembling, old, went on. "The second man waked and one was obliged to strangle him also. One brought the brace to the captain at the end of the carabine—rifle."
"In heaven's name who are you?" demanded the colonel.
From where old Rafael had been, bowed and limp in his humble, worn clothes, stepped at a stride a soldier, head up, shoulders squared, glittering eyes forward, and stood at attention. It was like magic. One hand snapped up in a smart salute.
"Who are you?" whispered the colonel.