"But, if you heard the firing, you must certainly have heard Jorancé shouting.... They stuffed a gag into my mouth.... But Jorancé kept on roaring, 'We are in France! We are on French territory!' You heard Jorancé shouting, didn't you, now?"
Philippe hesitated before making a reply of which he vaguely felt the tremendous importance. But, opposite him, he saw Marthe watching him with increasing surprise and, near Marthe, he saw Suzanne's drawn features. He said:
"Yes, I heard him ... I heard him at a distance...."
Old Morestal could not contain himself for joy. And, when he learnt besides that Philippe had received the last words of Baufeld the deserter, he burst out:
"You saw him? He was alive? He told you that they had set a trap for us, didn't he?"
"He mentioned the name of Dourlowski."
"Capital! But our meeting with the soldier, the pursuit ... he must have told you that all this took place in France?"
"Yes, I seemed to understand ..."
"We've got them!" shouted Morestal. "We've got them! Of course, I was quite easy in my mind.... But all the same, Philippe's evidence, the declaration of the dying private.... Ah, the brigands, they'll have to let go their prey!... We were in France, kind friends! There has been a violation of the frontier!"
Philippe saw that he had gone too far; and he objected: