Page:War's dark frame (IA warsdarkframe00camp).pdf/289

Rh "You must tell us why."

"You cannot spend the night here. I tell you you cannot. It is quite impossible."

They glanced at each other. They looked again at the woman who stood in the light of the candle just within the doorway.

"Queer!" the pilot whispered.

The observer drew him aside. While the woman continued to stare at them without any apparent interest they consulted about her.

"Looks dangerous," the observer said.

“Loyal French are never inhospitable. This woman speaks the language all right, but we're not so far from the frontier.

Perhaps she is hiding some one—a German, wounded, more than likely. We know they retreated through here to-day."

The pilot shivered in the rising storm.

"You're probably right, and the danger's for the German and not for us. We'll stay in spite of this woman, who doesn't get angry, who doesn't plead, who offers no excuses, who simply forbids us. Naturally we will protect ourselves. We must search the house."

So they went back to the woman and told her that they intended to enter and search as a preliminary to spending the night whether she wanted them or not.