peasant prisoners, that I know my prayers for the end of the war
were not motivated entirely by selfless considerations. I am
hankering to get into the neighborhood of this fellow when he
doesn't hold all the trump cards. In justice to Javert, I must say that
he reciprocated my feeling magnificently, and, inasmuch as he
was the cat and I the mouse, and a very small one at that, he
probably found much more spiritual satisfaction in the exercise of
his feelings than I did in mine. That is why I was anxious to have
the war end and embrace the first opportunity to change our roles.
I yearned to give him his proper place in the sun.

Having completed my case, he demanded my papers, and then
bade me open the door. There was a soldier waiting, and with him
ahead and Javert behind, I was escorted into the courtyard. Here
a double-door was opened, and I was thrust into a room filled with
a motley collection of persons guarded by a dozen soldiers with
rifles ready.

The sight was anything but reassuring. I turned toward Javert and
asked, somewhat frantically, I fear: "What is all this for? Aren't you
going to do anything about my case?"

My hitherto cool, smiling manner must have been an irritation to
him. A German official, especially a petty one, takes everything
with such deadly seriousness that he can't understand us taking
things so debonairly, especially when it is his own magisterial self.

So I think he thoroughly enjoyed my first signs of perturbation, and
said: "Your case will be settled in a little while--perhaps directly."
He turned to a soldier, bade him watch me, and disappeared.