But the moon had come out again and Morestal walked straight in front of him, without hesitation. He knew the frontier so well! He could have followed it with his eyes closed, in the dusk of the darkest night! At one place, there was a branch that blocked the way; at another, there was the trunk of an old oak which sounded hollow when he hit it with his stick. And he announced the branch before he came to it; and he struck at the old oak.
His uneasiness, which began to seem unreasonable, was dispelled. Consulting his watch again, he hurried his steps, so as to reach home by the time which he had said.
But suddenly he stopped. He thought he saw a shadow hiding, thirty or forty yards away from him:
"Did you see?" he whispered.
"Yes ... I saw...."
And, all at once, there came a shrill, strident whistle, apparently from the very place where the shadow had vanished.
"Don't move," said Jorancé.
They waited, their hearts tense with the anguish of what was coming.
A minute passed and more minutes; and then there was a sound of footsteps, below them, on the German side, the sound of a man hurrying....