ous it is to have charge of luggage so long and not
exactly what it is to know!"

He made no answer to this remark. But suddenly,
in a startled, suppressed whisper, he exclaimed, _"Who's_
_that?"_

Anna looked round. "Eh?" she said.

"You told me there was no one in the house, but
someone has just come out of the gate, and is standing
by my motor!" He added sternly, "Was heisst das?"
(What does this mean?)

Anna hurried to the window and looked through the
muslin curtain hanging in front of it. Yes, the
stranger had spoken truly. There was Mr. Hayley,
standing between the little motor-car and the back
door.

"Do not yourself worry," she said quickly. "It is
only a gentleman who luncheon here has eaten. Go
out and explain to him everything I will."

But the man had turned a greenish-white colour.
"How d'you mean 'explain'?" he said roughly, in
English.

"Explain that they are things of mine -- luggage --
that taking away you are," said Anna.

The old woman could not imagine why the stranger
showed such agitation. Mr. Hayley had no kind of
right to interfere with her and her concerns, and she
had no fear that he would do so.

"If you are so sure you can make it all right," the
man whispered low in German, "I will leave the house
by some other way -- there is surely some back way of
leaving the house? I will walk away, and stop at Hegner's
till I know the coast is clear."

"There is no back way out," whispered Anna, also

[[314]]

p313 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p314w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p315

v?