True enough, there he was.
Howard could see his little head just sticking out of a steel hatch at the top of the gun-turret as he chattered eagerly to the German soldier with him.
The man seemed to be holding Ronnie in his arms, lifting him up to show him how the captain conned his tank.
It was a pretty little picture of fraternisation.
The old man thought very quickly.
He knew that Ronnie would most probably be talking French; there would be nothing to impel him to break into English.
But he knew also that he himself must not go near the little boy nor must his sister; in his excited state he would at once break out in English to tell them all about the tank.
Yet, he must be got away immediately, while he was still thinking of nothing but the tank.
Once he began to think of other things, of their journey, or of Howard himself, he would inevitably betray them all in boyish chatter.
Within five minutes of him losing interest in the tank the Germans would be told that he was English, that an old Englishman was strolling round the town.
Sheila plucked his sleeve.
'I want my supper,' she said.
'May I have my supper now?
Please, Mr Howard, may I have my supper now?'
'In a minute,' he said absently.
'We'll all go and have our supper in a minute.'
But that was an idea.
If Sheila was hungry, Ronnie would be hungry too - unless the Germans had given him sweets.
He must risk that.
There was that soup kitchen that the German at the entrance to the town had spoken of; Howard could see the field-cookers a hundred yards down the Place.
He showed them to Rose.
'I am taking the little children down there, where the smoke is, for our supper,' he said casually.
'Go and fetch Ronnie, and bring him to us there.
Are you hungry?'
'Oui, m'sieur.'
She said that she was very hungry indeed.
'We shall have a fine hot supper, with hot soup and bread,' the old man said, drawing on his imagination.
'Go and tell Ronnie and bring him along with you.
I will walk on with the little ones.'
He sent her off, and watched her running through the crowd, her bare legs twinkling.
He steered the other children rather away from the tank; it would not do for Ronnie to be able to hail him.
He saw the little girl come to the tank and speak urgently to the Germans; then she was lost to sight.
The old man sent up an urgent, personal prayer for the success of her unwitting errand, as he helped Pierre push the pram towards the field-cookers.
There was nothing now that he could do.
Their future lay in the small hands of two children, and in the hands of God.
There was a trestle table, with benches.
He parked the pram and sat Pierre and Sheila and the nameless little Dutch boy at the table.
Soup was dispensed in thick bowls, with a hunk of bread; he went and drew four bowls for the lot of them and brought them to the table.
He turned and Rose was at his elbow with Ronnie.
The little boy was flushed and ecstatic.
They took me right inside!' he said in English.
The old man said gently in French: 'If you tell us in French, then Pierre can understand too.'
He did not think that anyone had noticed.
But the town was terribly dangerous for them; at any moment the children might break into English and betray them.
Ronnie said in French:
'There was a great big gun, and two little guns, m'sieur, and you steer with two handles and it goes seventy kilos an hour!'
Howard said: 'Come on and eat your supper.'
He gave him a bowl of soup and a piece of bread.
Sheila said enviously. 'Did you go for a ride, Ronnie?'
The adventurer hesitated.