d. "I have wondered where you
were."

"Ah," he laughed, "you missed me? That is good. You wondered what would
happen to you if I did not come back." He laughed as he lighted his
cigarette. "I am not so easily to be lost, I assure you. I have been
through Dukla Pass."

"Many soldiers have gone through the pass today--many this morning--many
more this afternoon."

"Yes, I saw them."

"And the Russians?"

He was silent for a while, and then spoke very quietly. "They are
coming."

She made no sound and seemed to be frozen into immobility by the import
of the information.

"The Austrians have fortified the other end of the Pass, but it is said
that the Russians are in great numbers, sweeping everything before
them----"

"Przemysl--! Lemberg--!"

"Lemberg has fallen. The fate of Przemysl hangs in the balance." He
shrugged. "Tomorrow, perhaps, may see the Cossacks at Dukla Pass."

"And then----"

"I do not wish to alarm you," he said gently. "Six hundred years have
passed over Schloss Szolnok, and it still stands. I am not going to run
away."

"But you can do nothing--against so many."

"They will not bother us, I think. The Austrians, you see, have passed
us by. They are taking all their artillery to Javorina and Jaegerhorn and
mounting them upon the old emplacements of the ruins. The defense will
be made there where the gorge is narrower."

"But if they should come--here--the Cossacks--!" she whispered
fearfully.

He laughed easily. "Ah, Countess, I am not a half-bad jailer, after
all?"

"The Cossacks!" she repeated.

"They shall not come here."

"What can you do?"

"The place is impregnable--sheer cliffs upon all sides--the causeway two
hundred meters long. I could pick them off one by one from the top of
the keep. With the drawbridge up, we are as safe as though we were in
Vienna."

"But their artillery?"

"They will not think us worth their while. In the armory there are six
repeating hunting rifles and four shotguns, ammunition plentiful----" He
broke off and, rising, came over and stood beside her. "But we will not
think of unpleasant possibilities. It has been so long since I have seen
you--too long."

She let him take her hand and press it to his lips, but tonight that
condescension did not seem to be enough. He fell to one knee beside her
and would have put his arm about her waist if she had not risen and
struggled away from him.

"You forget, Herr Hauptmann, the dependence of my p