The fellow growled an execration in Servian; then with ponderous difficulty asked a question in German.

“Who are you and what do you want here?”

Armitage shook his head; and replied in English: 

“I do not understand.”

The man struck a series of matches that he might scrutinize his captive’s face, then ran his hands over Armitage’s pockets to make sure he had no arms.  The big fellow was clearly puzzled to find that he had caught a gentleman in water-soaked evening clothes lurking in the area, and as the matter was beyond his wits it only remained for him to communicate with his master.  This, however, was not so readily accomplished.  He had reasons of his own for not calling out, and there were difficulties in the way of holding the prisoner and at the same time bringing down the men who had gone to the most distant room in the house for their own security.

Several minutes passed during which the burly Servian struck his matches and took account of his prisoner; and meanwhile Armitage lay perfectly still, his arms fast numbing from the rough clasp of the stalwart servant’s legs.  There was nothing to be gained by a struggle in this position, and he knew that the Servian would not risk losing him in the effort to summon the odd pair who were bent over their papers at the top of the house.  The Servian was evidently a man of action.

“Get up,” he commanded, still in rough German, and he rose in the dark and jerked Armitage after him.  There was a moment of silence in which Armitage shook and stretched himself, and then the Servian struck another match and held it close to a revolver which he held pointed at Armitage’s head.

“I will shoot,” he said again in his halting German.

“Undoubtedly you will!” and something in the fellow’s manner caused Armitage to laugh.  He had been caught and he did not at once see any safe issue out of his predicament; but his plight had its preposterous side and the ease with which he had been taken at the very outset of his quest touched his humor.  Then he sobered instantly and concentrated his wits upon the immediate situation.

The Servian backed away with a match upheld in one hand and the leveled revolver in the other, leaving Armitage in the middle of the kitchen.

“I am going to light a lamp and if you move I will kill you,” admonished the fellow, and Armitage heard his feet scraping over the brick floor of the kitchen as he backed toward a table that stood against the wall near the outer door.

Armitage stood perfectly still.  The neighborhood and the house itself were quiet; the two men in the third-story room were probably engrossed with the business at which Armitage had left them; and his immediate affair was with the Servian alone.  The fellow continued to mumble his threats; but Armitage had resolved to play the part of an Englishman who understood no German, and he addressed the man sharply in English several times to signify that he did not understand.