On seeing me, he stopped short.

"Dr. Grundt? Where is Dr. Grundt?" he asked and his eyes dropped to my
feet. He started and raised them to my face.

The trooper had drifted out of earshot. I could see him, immobile as a
statue, standing at the end of the corridor. Except for him and us, the
passage was deserted.

Again the elderly man spoke and his voice betrayed his anxiety.

"Who are you?" he asked almost in a whisper. "What have you done with
Grundt? Why has he not come?"

Boldly I took the plunge.

"I am Semlin," I said.

"Semlin," echoed the other, "--ah yes! the Embassy in Washington wrote
about you--but Grundt was to have come...."

"Listen," I said, "Grundt could not come. We had to separate and he sent
me on ahead...."

"But ... but ..."--the man was stammering now in his anxiety--"... you
succeeded?"

I nodded.