I nodded and waited.
“Those gentlemen, your friends they left you here in the wood?”
“On the path outside it.”
“You have not been in this wood before now to-night?”
“No.”
“You have seen your friends since you parted from them down there?”
“No.”
“No? Why did you walk this way?”
“Really, sir,” I answered, getting somewhat exasperated, “I don’t know why I should submit to this cross-examination.”
He laughed, showing a set of cruel teeth. “Because you are an Englishman it is incomprehensible. May one inquire without offence your object in walking this way when the path to the palace is outside the wood?”