“Bang!⁠ ⁠… Crash!”

That was nearer again.

Some of the officers strolled out of the dining room.

“They’re making a mess outside. Perhaps we’d better get away before it gets too hot.”

Madame from the cash-desk turned to her accounts again. I noticed the increasing pallor of her skin beneath the two dabs of red. But she controlled her nerves pluckily; even smiled, too, at the young officer who was settling up for a group of others.

The moon had risen over the houses of Amiens. It was astoundingly bright and beautiful in a clear sky and still air, and the streets were flooded with white light, and the roofs glittered like silver above intense black shadows under the gables, where the rays were barred by projecting walls.

“Curse the moon!” said one officer. “How I hate its damned light!”