The whole of that day I remained in the kitchen there at the back of the café I could hear the Germans coming in and out. They were blowing their own trumpets all the time, telling always of their victories.
Ada's little old husband would walk up and down, whistling the cheeriest pipe of a whistle I have ever heard. It did me good to listen to him. It brought before one in the midst of all this terror and ruin an image of birds.
At six o'clock that day, when dusk began to gather, Ada shut up the café, put out the lights, and she and her old husband and I sat together in the kitchen round the fire.
Presently, in came Henri, with my little bag, accompanied by Madame X., and her big husband, and two enormous yellow dogs.
They told me that the Danish Doctor came back at three o'clock, asked for me, and was told I had gone to Holland.
"If it were not for the Danish Doctor I should feel quite safe," I said. "Was he angry?"
"Did he get the passport from his Consul?"
"But he is no spy," answered Henri. "If he had wanted to betray you he would have done it last night."
"What did you know about him?" I asked. "What made you send him up to me, François? Surely you wouldn't have told him about me unless you _knew_ he was trustworthy!"
"C'est ça!" agreed big, fat, sad-eyed François. "I have known him for some time. I never doubted him. I am sure he is to be trusted. He has worked very hard among our wounded."
"But why did he speak with the Germans in the restaurant?"
"He is a Dane, he can speak as he chooses."
"Then you don't think he was speaking of _me_?"
"No, Madame! C'est évident, n'est-ce-pas? You have left the hotel in safety!"
"Perhaps he will ask Monsieur Claude where I am?"
"Monsieur Claude will tell him he knows nothing about you, has never seen you, never heard of you!"
"Perhaps he will ask Monsieur Claude's sister?"
"We must tell her not to tell him where you are."
"Do you mean to say that you haven't warned her already not to tell him where I've really gone to?"
"But of course she will not tell him. She is devoted to you, Madame."
"She might tell him to get rid of him," says Ada slowly.
"C'est ça!" agree the others thoughtfully.
And at that all the terror of last night returns to me. It returns like a _memory_, but it is troublous all the same.