At two o'clock! It was now past twelve. There was not a minute to lose. We were ready in an instant, and on the way to Laon the offenders told the truth. "Oh," they said to me, "we have been so frightened! You know, we did not want to worry mother, but you can imagine that we ourselves were terrified." "We were already late," said Antoinette, "when at St. Marcel we discovered that we had lost Colette's ring. We went back to the town, found the jewel half-crushed, and hastened once more on the way home. It was about half-past four, the night was rapidly falling when we got to the level-crossing. "'Passports!' we heard. "'But we have none ... they have never been required.' "'Then go back to Laon, you are not allowed to pass.' "'Impossible! We have no house in Laon; my mother is expecting us at Morny.' "'Wait a minute,' said a voice, and, riding on a bicycle, an officer, attended by two men, came out of the fog. We explained the whole thing in our best German, for he did not speak French at all. He was courteous, and seemed inclined to let us go, when he was struck by a sudden idea: "'Are you English?' he asked. "Yvonne understood, 'Do you speak English?' and answered: "'Yes.' "'So, you are! Then you don't go. Come into the house.' "The soldiers gathered round and looked curiously at us. One of them carried a lantern, which made all faces red. Our hearts beat violently. "'Sir, please let us go home. We are not English ... my sister mistook your question.' "You will explain this to me; come in first." "The door was thrown open; I stood on the threshold, when Yvonne caught my arm: "'Don't go in, don't go in!' "I looked around me. We were alone among these ten men, whose looks seemed very strange to me. Around us nothing but the lonely fields, the darkness, and the fog. In front of us a row of untidy beds; on a broken-legged table a wretched lamp completed this picture of a disreputable house. "'Oh no, I pray you, let us go away; let us return to Laon.' "'If you don't come in, and quickly, I will shoot you.' "And the officer snatched up his revolver. "Out of despair we went in, the ten men pushed us and rushed in after us. "'You pack off post haste,' the officer said. "The soldiers disappeared, except one to guard the door. "'Well, you were wise to come in,' said the officer, 'or I would have ordered my men to fire at you.' "To exemplify his officer's words, the facetious guard pointed his revolver at us. Pierrot chose that very moment to shriek with terror: "'Oh, I am so frightened, so frightened!' "We were frightened too, I assure you; yet we did our best to comfort the poor boy. I explained our case to our judge, and produced the twisted ring, the cause of our being late. "'We live in Morny, were born in Morny, our anxious family is waiting there for us. Here are our papers; you see we are French students, and not English.'