They had been speaking in very low tones. Now Stan spoke louder. “Better be getting ready to go to that lecture.”
“Sure,” O’Malley agreed.
The boys settled down to wait. O’Malley kept looking at his wrist watch. Stan lay with his eyes closed. He was checking every angle of the strange business. As near as he could gather, things were going badly in Germany. The big crack-up might be near at hand.
At five minutes to nine they heard steps in the hall. They passed down the stairs. Boys from the rooms along the hallway were going to the lecture. Stan got up and disconnected the microphone. O’Malley was pacing about like a caged lion. They heard single footsteps and there was a rap on the door. It opened and Hans stood there.
“I am glad you have not yet gone to the lecture,” he said. “Herr General wishes to speak to you. You will come with me.”
Stan looked at O’Malley and O’Malley looked at Stan. Stan spoke smoothly.
“Couldn’t we see the general after the lecture? We’d like very much to hear the colonel.”
“It will not wait. Herr General is a very impatient man.”
There was nothing to do but go with Hans. Stan and O’Malley walked along the hallway with the corporal, keeping a sharp watch for Sim. They did not see him in the hallway or downstairs. Hans took them past the guards at the outer garden gate and across the street to another house. In a small hall room he nodded toward chairs.
“You will be called,” he said, then turned and hurried away.