on I
resolved not to go there but to meet the sailors when they were
returning to the boat. Or the captain might have been warned and got
the number of my pass, in which case Stumm would have his hands on me
pretty soon. Or the captain might be an ignorant fellow who had never
seen a Secret Service pass and did not know what it meant, and would
refuse me transport by the letter of his instructions. In that case I
might wait on another convoy.

I had shaved and made myself a fairly respectable figure before I left
the cottage. It was my cue to wait for the men when they left the
church, wait on that quarter-mile of straight highway. I judged the
captain must be in the party. The village, I was glad to observe,
seemed very empty. I have my own notions about the Bavarians as
fighting men, but I am bound to say that, judging by my observations,
very few of them stayed at home.

That funeral took hours. They must have had to dig the grave, for I
waited near the road in a clump of cherry-trees, with my feet in two
inches of mud and water, till I felt chilled to the bone. I prayed to
God it would not bring back my fever, for I was only one day out of
bed. I had very little tobacco left in my pouch, but I stood myself
one pipe, and I ate one of the three cakes of chocolate I still carried.

At last, well after midday, I could see the ship's party returning.
They marched two by two and I was thankful to see that they had no
villagers with them. I walked to the road, turned up it, and met the
vanguard, carrying my head as high as I knew how.

'Where's your captain?' I asked, and a man jerked his thumb over his
shoulder. The others wore thick jerseys and knitted caps, but there
was one man at the rear in uniform.

He was a short, broad man with a weather-beaten face and an anxious eye.

'May I have a word with you, Herr Captain?' I said, with what I hoped
was a judicious blend of authority and conciliation.

He nodded to his companion, who walked on.

'Yes?' he asked rather impatiently.

I proffered him my pass. Thank Heaven he had seen the kind of thing
before, for his face at once took on that curious look which one person
in authority always wears when he is confronted with another. He
studied it closely and then raised his eyes.

'Well, Sir?' he said. 'I observe your credentials. What can I do for
you?'

'I take it you are bound for Constantinople?' I asked.

'The boats go as far as Rustchuk,' he