"They've got the range of the Station, mon Commandant," he reported; "they have just sent a shell into the tracks. It is dangerous in the look-out of the house. Do you wish Victor to remain?" "I will relieve him," said the Commandant, and he left swiftly and silently, as was his wont. Hilda returned to the piano, and began softly playing, with the hush-pedal on. The two women drew close around her. Suddenly she released the pedal, and lifted her hands from the keys, as if they burned her. One string was still faintly singing which she had not touched, the string of the key that the Commandant had struck. "Mercy, child, what ails you?" exclaimed Mrs. Bracher. "You've all got the fidgets to-night." "That string again," said the girl. She rose from the piano, and went out into the night. They heard her footsteps on the road. "Hilda, Hilda," called Scotch, loudly. "Leave her alone, she is fey," said Mrs. Bracher. "I know her in these moods. You can't interfere. You must let her go." "We can at least see where she goes," urged Scotch. They followed her at a distance. She went swiftly up the road, and straight to the railway tracks. She entered the house, the dark, wrecked house, where from the second story window, a perpetual look-out was kept, like the watch of the Vestal Virgins. They came to the open door, and heard her ascend to the room of the vigil. "You must come," they heard her say, "come at once." "No, no," answered the voice of the Commandant, "I am on duty here. But you--what brings you here? You cannot stay. Go at once. I order you." "I shall not go till you go," the girl replied in expressionless tones. "I tell you to go," repeated the Commandant in angry but suppressed voice. "You can shoot me," said the girl, "but I will not go without you. Come--" her voice turned to pleading--"Come, while there is time." "My time has come," said the Commandant. "It is here--my end." "Then for me, too," she said, "but I have come to take you from it." There was a silence of a few seconds, then the sound of a chair scraping the floor, heavy boots on the boarding, and the two, Commandant and girl, descending the stairs. Unastonished, they stepped out and found the two women waiting. "We must save the girl," said the Commandant. "Come, run for it, all of you, run!"