following a safe distance, saw them unsaddle on the grass
and make their camp. Then he hurried back to Lannes and awoke him
gently.

"What! what is it?" exclaimed Lannes. "The Germans in Paris! The capital
fallen, you say!"

"No! No! Not so loud! Come out of your dreams! Paris is all right, but
there are Uhlans just beyond the edge of the wood, and some scouts of
theirs may come tramping here."

Lannes was thoroughly awake in another instant.

"You did not wake me when my time came, John," he said.

"I didn't because you needed the rest more than I did."

"Where did you say the Uhlans were?"

"In a field at the eastern edge of the wood. They are Prussians led by
an officer, von Boehlen, whom I saw at Dresden before the war began.
They rode into the wood to water their horses, but now they've gone back
to make a camp."

"You've certainly watched well, John, and now I suppose we must run
again. They follow us in the air and they follow us on the ground. This
is a bad trap, John. Suppose you go to von Boehlen, tell him who you
are, how you were kidnapped in a way, and throw yourself on his mercy.
You'll be safe. The Germans want the friendship of the Americans."

"And desert you at such a time? Philip Lannes, you're not worthy to bear
the name of the great Marshal!"

Lannes laughed in an embarrassed manner.

"It was merely an offer," he said. "I didn't expect you to accept it."

"You knew I wouldn't. Come, think quick, and tell us what we're going to
do!"

"You fit fast into your new role of what you call boss, Monsieur Jean
the Scott!"

"And I mean to be boss for the next five minutes. Then you will have
decided how we're going to escape and you'll resume your place."

"As I said we won't abandon the Arrow, so our passage will be through
the air. John, I mean that we shall run the gantlet. We'll pass their
air fleet and reach our own."

He spoke in low tones, but they contained the ring of daring. John
responded. With the ending of the era, the changing of the world, he had
changed, too. Shy and sensitive the spirit of adventure flamed up in
him. Those flights in the air had touched him with the magic of
achievements, impossible, but which yet had been done.

"Suppose we launch the _Arrow_ at once," he said. "I'm ready to try
anything with you."

"I knew that, too. One thing in our favor is the number of clouds
hanging low in the west, where their air fleet is. It's likely that most
of the planes a