snug and unimpeachable.
Carstairs drove slowly to the front of it, and he and John meanwhile
answered a torrent of questions. Yes, they had been in a fight with
Germans, and, after seizing one of their armored cars, they had escaped
in it. But it was true that the Germans were coming into France by all
the main roads, and the people must be ready.

There were many exclamations of dismay, and the questions they asked
John and Carstairs never ceased. But they said nothing to Wharton. His
stern, absent expression did not invite confidences. He was looking over
their heads at something far away, and he seemed merely to be going into
the inn, because his comrades were doing so.

The three found the breakfast good as usual. Gasoline could be obtained.
It was not for civilians, but as they were soldiers serving France they
were able to buy a supply. The news that they desired was scarce,
although there was a vast crop of rumors which many told as facts. John
was learning that war was the mother of lies. He believed only what men
had seen with their own eyes, and but little of that. It was incredible
how people described in detail things they had witnessed, but which had
never occurred.

Had a British army landed? It had. It had not. Where was it? It was in
Belgium. It was in France. It was at the training camps in England.
There was plenty of information, and one could choose whatever he liked
best. John and Carstairs looked at each other in dismay. They had a car,
but where were they to go. At least they carried dispatches for a
British army which some of the French believed to be in France. But
Wharton took no notice of the difficulty. He was silent, and preoccupied
with their triumphant arrival that was coming.

John asked the most questions, and at last he found a woman whose words
seemed to be based upon fact and not imagination. She had a cousin who
was employed in the telegraph, and her cousin told her, that British
troops had landed, that some of them at least had reached Paris, and
then had gone north toward Belgium, the region of Mons or Charleroi, she
believed. She spoke quietly and with much detail, and John believed that
she had a mind able to tell the truth without exaggeration.

He held a brief conference with Carstairs, who had now replenished the
gasoline, and who had also put stores of food in the car. Carstairs
agreed with him that the statement was probably correct, and that at any
rate they ought to g