We saw the lugger, and someone was landed from it just after the boat that brought me over pushed off.' I remembered that boat, which had been the first thing which I had seen upon the coast of France.

How little I had thought what it would mean to me! And now my advocate began asking questions--vague, useless questions--in a slow, hesitating fashion which set Toussac grumbling.

This cross-examination appeared to me to be a useless farce; and yet there was a certain eagerness and intensity in my questioner's manner which gave me the assurance that he had some end in view.

Was it merely that he wished to gain time?
Time for what?
And then, suddenly, with that quick perception which comes upon those whose nerves are strained by an extremity of danger, I became convinced that he really was awaiting something--that he was tense with expectation.

I read it upon his drawn face, upon his sidelong head with his ear scooped into his hand, above all in his twitching, restless eyes.