He called to me
from a distance:
"Hei! how did you get in there?"
I touched my cap, but said nothing.
"Somebody been breaking in again?"
"It was only . . . I just remembered I'd left out a couple of nails here
yesterday. It's all right now. If Captain will lock up again . . ."
Fool that I was! If that was the best excuse I could find, he would see
through it all at once.
He stood for a few seconds looking at the door with half-closed eyes; he
had his suspicions, no doubt. Then he took out the key, locked up the
place, and walked off. What else could he do?
V
All the guests are gone--stout Captain Bror, the lady with the shawl,
Engineer Lassen as well. And Captain Falkenberg is getting ready to start
for manoeuvres at last. It struck me that he must have applied for leave
on very special grounds, or he would have been away on duty long before
this.
We farm-hands have been hard at work in the fields the last few days--a
heavy strain on man and beast. But Nils knew what he was doing; he wanted
to gain time for something else.
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