He heard it quite clearly now.

Someone was moving in the nursery.
With that the whole of his brain was awake and he knew quite clearly, beyond a shadow of any doubt, what had happened; the Captain had come to fetch him.

With that knowledge an icy despair gripped him.

He did not want to go.

Oh, he did not want to go! He was trembling from head to foot so that the bed shook beneath him, his breath came in little hot gasping pants, and his eyes were wide with terror.