They sit silent and forlorn.

Steps can be heard outside. It is terrifying. This room does not feel safe, even though there is nothing dangerous inside it. They listen to the footsteps intently.

‘Take it easy,’ says Peter quietly. He can say that to Henry, who is the youngest and the one most strongly affected by everything.

‘I am taking it easy,’ answers Henry.

His face is full of sorrow. Stig is certain to die. Both of them know it. It seems impossible all the same. What will they do then?

They have no work to do here. No paper. Everything has been cleared away. Their pockets are empty. Their orders have been burnt. But they cannot be certain that some finger or other has not been pointed at themselves. They think of Stig being put to the ordeal, and shudder with horror. That’s what they’re thinking about all the time now: Will Stig hold out?

The footsteps have come to a halt outside, and they stay alert. But it doesn’t seem as if they have any business here.

Is someone standing outside checking in his notebook to see if this is the right door? That’s what may be happening.

No.

There comes the pleasant sound of the next footstep. This door is thin. There is nothing to hide here. Everything is as normal and innocent as can be, which is why footsteps can be heard so clearly inside. And now another step. Whoever was outside is going.

‘That’s better,’ says Henry, as if rounding an obstacle.

Peter makes no reply. Stig is in both their thoughts.

‘Perhaps he’s getting reinforcements,’ says Henry again. ‘In that case we’re finished too.’

Peter examines him. What’s the matter with Henry? What he says sounds hardened. Because they are so bound by their orders, they have no right to express anything else. But Henry’s face is tense; he is involved in a tougher game than he is built for.

Peter says harshly, ‘Will you keep quiet, Henry?’

‘All right,’ answers Henry at once, shamefaced.

He sits in silence for a little, then he says, as if apologizing for himself and his fears, ‘But none of us are such great fellows, I don’t suppose, at the present moment?’

Peter acknowledges the truth of this by his silence. Stig appears to them in a new light. Both of them are aware of the weakness in their knees as they think of what he is going through. Will he hold out? They have moved out of their cellar in case he doesn’t. And if he doesn’t, no one has the right to blame him.

But this is a strange period of time: these hours of waiting to see whether Stig is going to hold out or not. A time they will remember for the rest of their lives, however long they may live and whatever else may happen to them. That is how it feels to them.

During these hours it will be decided.

There are many ways of finding out. They know that Stig has been taken to the ordeal far behind the stone walls. John is out. Perhaps he will know something when he comes back. They wait impatiently for his footsteps, seeing at the same time what is happening in the centre – they don’t wish to, but it cannot be pushed aside.