She heard as though from an infinite distance the words: 

“Well, there’s nobody there.”

She did not believe him of course.  He said that whoever he was, to test her, to tempt her to give herself away.  But she was too clever for them.  She turned back and faced them, and then saw, to the accompaniment of an amazement that seemed like thunder in her ears, that the cupboard was indeed empty.

“There is nobody,” said the black-bearded soldier.

The student looked rather ashamed of himself.  The white clothes, the skirts, and the blouses in the cupboard reproached him.

“You will of course understand, Madame,” he said stiffly, “that the search was inevitable.  Regrettable but necessary.  I’m sure you will see that for your own satisfaction....”

“You are assured now that there is no one here?” Vera interrupted him coldly.

“Assured,” he answered.

But where was the man?  She felt as though she were in some fantastic nightmare in which nothing was as it seemed.  The cupboard was not a cupboard, the policeman not a policeman....

“There is the kitchen,” she said.

In the kitchen of course they found nothing.  There was a large cupboard in one corner but they did not look there.  They had had enough.  They returned into the dining-room and there, looking very surprised, his head very high above his collar was Markovitch.

“What does this mean?” he asked.

“I regret extremely,” said the officer pompously.  “I have been compelled to make a search.  Duty only...  I regret.  But no one is here.  Your flat is at liberty.  I wish you good-afternoon.”

Before Markovitch could ask further questions the room was emptied of them all.  They tramped out, laughing and joking, children again, the hall door closed behind them.

Nina clutched Vera’s arm.

“Vera....  Vera, where is he?”

“I don’t know,” said Vera.

“What’s all this?” asked Nicholas.

They explained to him but he scarcely seemed to hear.  He was radiant—­smiling in a kind of ecstasy.

“They have gone?  I am safe?”

In the doorway was the little policeman, black with grime and dust, so comical a figure that in reaction from the crisis of ten minutes before, they laughed hysterically.

“Oh look! look!...” cried Nina.  “How dirty he is!”

“Where have you been?” asked Vera.  “Why weren’t you in the cupboard?”

The little man’s teeth were chattering, so that he could scarcely speak....

“I heard them in the other room.  I knew that the cupboard would be the first place.  I slipped into the kitchen and hid in the fireplace.”

“You’re not angry, Nicholas?” Vera asked.  “We couldn’t send him out to be shot.”

“What does that matter?” he almost impatiently brushed it aside.  “There are other things more important.”  He looked at the trembling dirty figure.  “Only you’d better go back and hide again until it’s dark.  They might come back....”