"I've half a mind to go out." Then he caught sight of a particularly fierce-looking soldier with his finger already upon the trigger of his gun, and he decided to remain where he was.
In about half an hour the two men reappeared on the platform of the car.
Simultaneously the window of the carriage in which they had been sitting was opened, and the third man was visible, standing before a small table and arranging some papers.

Suddenly he was called from outside.

He thrust his hat upon the papers, and hastened to obey the summons.
A little gust of breeze from the opening and closing of the door detached one of the sheets of paper from the restraining weight of the hat.

It fluttered out of the window and lay for a moment upon the side of the track.

No one noticed it, and in a second or two it fluttered underneath the clump of bracken behind which the young Englishman was hiding.