The light was dying in the west, he had not time to continue his explorations thoroughly, and, after satisfying himself that this room was connected with De Nouart's apartments by a winding staircase, which led past servants' rooms, Kurt returned unmolested to the blue room, whence he issued unobserved into the corridor leading to his own and Von Saeben's quarters. He found his captain just returned to his room from a tour of inspection of the posts about the castle, and quite ready to listen to all that he had to say. Of course Von Saeben knew nothing of Repuin or of Sorr. Kurt explained who they were, and their complicity in treasonable plots in Germany, without in any way mentioning Frau von Sorr. They were both proscribed French agents. "The address on the envelope is, after all, your only ground for suspicion that the proscribed Count Repuin is one and the same person with the brother of the Marquise de Lancy, and that the Baron de Nouart is a German, and the Herr von Sorr of whom you speak," the captain said, when Kurt had finished his narrative. "That and the resemblance observed by Count Schlichting, Count Styrum, and the Baron von Hohenwald between the Baron de Nouart and some one whom they had seen." "But neither of these gentlemen was reminded of Sorr. Count Schlichting has told me that he has an excellent memory for faces, and should recognize one that he had once seen, even after twenty years. Would he not instantly have known Sorr?" "He probably never imagined that he should find him here in France under the name of the Baron de Nouart. The Baron's avoidance of us, and his pretended ignorance of the German language, seem to me very suspicious circumstances." Kurt remarked. "And yet they are hardly sufficient to warrant my arresting him and sending him to Nontron," the captain replied. "The colonel is an excellent man, but he is fond of a short shrift, and apt to take suspicion for certainty. If he should discover Sorr and the Baron to be one and the same person, he would have the poor devil shot without more ado; and it may be that, even although he wishes to avoid us, he does not meditate treachery. I am not fond of courts-martial, Herr von Poseneck, and I do without them when I can. Your discovery is certainly of importance, and it behooves us to be more upon our guard than ever. We have been imprudent in instituting no thorough search of the castle. This shall be undertaken to-morrow, and if we find proof of the Baron's guilt he shall be brought to justice." All the officers, Kurt with the rest, retired early on this evening, Kurt imagining that the fatigue and excitement of the day would insure him instant repose. But this was not so; he lay awake hour after hour; sleep fled his eyelids. In vain did he woo her by all familiar means, counting slowly to one hundred, reciting mentally verses learned in childhood; he could not banish from his mind his last conversation with his captain.