Twice we doubled back, and once we climbed a wall and followed the bank of a blue-black stream with a filthy scum on it.

Then we got into a very mean quarter of the town, and emerged in a dingy garden, strewn with tin cans and broken flowerpots.

By a back door we entered one of the cottages and my guide very carefully locked it behind him.
He lit the gas and drew the blinds in a small parlour and looked at me long and quizzically.

He spoke now in an educated voice.
'I ask no questions,' he said, 'but it's my business to put my services at your disposal.

You carry the passport.' I stared at him, and he pulled out his watch and showed a white-and-purple cross inside the lid.
'I don't defend all the people we employ,' he said, grinning.