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Table of Contents | Printable Version As soon as Catherine and Louka are gone. The man steps out from his hiding place as Raina slams the door. He thanks her for saving him. She presumes he is one of those Austrians who were helping the Serbs to destroy the liberty of the Bulgarians. He confesses that he is a Swiss mercenary and begs her not to hate him. H requests her to allow him to spend some more time in her bedroom as he is still not out of danger. She requests him to sit. As she sits on the ottoman she jumps up with a shriek that startles him. Seeing his reaction she scornfully hands him the revolver so that he may protect himself and he tells her the revolver was useless as it had no cartridges. Raina tells him to load it and he tells her that instead of cartridges, he carried chocolates. She is outraged and offers him some chocolate cream. He eats ravenously and as his good humor returns he thanks her and tells her only young soldiers carry ammunition whereas the old soldiers carried food. He is tired and sleepy. She is sympathetic. She mentions that Bulgarian soldiers were not like him. He explains how the Bulgarians had won victory due to sheer ignorance. He describes the leader of the cavalry charge sarcastically, not knowing that he was Raina's lover. He tells her that the man was "A regular handsome fellow, with flashing eyes and lovely moustache shouting his war-cry and charging like Don Quixote at the windmills." Raina shows him the portrait of Sergius, he recognizes the "Don Quixote" and chokes with suppressed laughter. Raina snatches the picture and deliberately kisses it. She is offended and asks him to go back the way he came. He could climb up the pipe when he was being charged by the enemy but going down was impossible. Raina is, once again, moved to pity. He is exhausted and extremely sleepy, yet agrees to go down. Just at that moment they hear firing and Raina seizes him and pulls him in. She asks him not to sleep while she goes out to tell her mother about him. She assures him that he could trust their hospitality. He tries hard to stand up and keep awake but stumbles on the bed and falls asleep.
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