They started. It was not the answer they expected.
'What?' Tzerclas asked curtly, in a tone that boded ill for me--if worse were possible.
'To ask how I came into the house.'
The general looked death at Ludwig. 'What is this, knave?' he thundered. 'You told me that he came in by the window?'
'He did, general,' Ludwig answered, shrugging his shoulders.
'Yes, from the next house,' I said coolly. 'Where my friends are now waiting for me.'
'Which house?' Tzerclas demanded.
'Herr Krapp's.'
I was completely in their hands. But they knew, and I knew, that their lives were scarcely more secure than mine; that, given a word, a sign, a traitor among them--and they were all traitors, more or less--all their boarded windows and locked doors would avail them not ten minutes against the frenzied mob. That thought blanched more than one cheek while I spoke; made more than one listen fearfully and cast eyes at the door; so that I wondered no longer, seeing their grisly faces, why the room, in spite of its brightness, had that strange and sombre look. Treachery, fear, suspicion, all lurked under the lights.
Tzerclas alone was unmoved; perhaps because he had something less to fear than the faithless Neumann. 'Herr Krapp's?' he said scornfully. 'Is that all? I will answer for that house myself. I have a man watching it, and if danger threatens from that direction, we shall know it in good time. He marks all who go in or out.'