c, the
staff officer she had surprised on the fourth floor was driving him
forward. Above the clinched fists of the soldiers that ran to meet
him, the eyes of Anfossi were turned toward her. His face was
expressionless. His eyes neither accused nor reproached. And with the
joy of one who has looked upon and then escaped the guillotine, Marie
ran down the steps to the waiting automobile. With a pretty cry of
pleasure she leaped into the seat beside Thierry. Gayly she threw out
her arms. "To Paris!" she commanded. The handsome eyes of Thierry,
eloquent with admiration, looked back into hers. He stooped, threw in
the clutch, and the great gray car, with the machine gun and its crew
of privates guarding the rear, plunged through the park.

"To Paris!" echoed Thierry.

In the order in which Marie had last seen them, Anfossi and the staff
officer entered the room of General Andre, and upon the soldiers in the
hall the door was shut. The face of the staff officer was grave, but
his voice could not conceal his elation.

"My general," he reported, "I found this man in the act of giving
information to the enemy. There is a wireless-"

General Andre rose slowly. He looked neither at the officer nor at his
prisoner. With frowning eyes he stared down at the maps upon his table.

"I know," he interrupted. "Some one has already told me." He paused,
and then, as though recalling his manners, but still without raising
his eyes, he added: "You have done well, sir."

In silence the officers of the staff stood motionless. With surprise
they noted that, as yet, neither in anger nor curiosity had General
Andre glanced at the prisoner. But of the presence of the general the
spy was most acutely conscious. He stood erect, his arms still raised,
but his body strained forward, and on the averted eyes of the general
his own were fixed.

In an agony of supplication they asked a question.

At last, as though against his wish, toward the spy the general turned
his head, and their eyes met. And still General Andre was silent.
Then the arms of the spy, like those of a runner who has finished his
race and breasts the tape exhausted, fell to his sides. In a voice low
and vibrant he spoke his question.

"It has been so long, sir," he pleaded. "May I not come home?"

General Andre turned to the astonished group surrounding him. His
voice was hushed like that of one who speaks across an open grave.

"Gentlemen," he began, "