arkable
feature. They were intensely bright, and the light in them seemed to
shift and change, but no matter what the change might be they were
always gay and merry. John surmised that he was one of the few, who by a
radiant presence, are born to be a source of joy to the world, and time
was to confirm him in his opinion.

"Luckily the big tombs of dead and forgotten Germans rise on either side
of us," whispered Lannes, "and the chances are good that we won't be
discovered, but we must keep on lying close. We're on the German side in
this town and the Germans will look longer than the Austrians. They're
at the end of the alley now, not thirty feet away."

John heard them marching. The thump, thump of solid German feet was
plainly audible. It was a sound that he was to hear again, and again,
and never forget, that heavy thump, thump of the marching German feet, a
great military empire going forward to crush or be crushed. Even in
those moments he was impressed less by his sense of personal danger than
by his feeling that a nation was on the march.

"They've turned," said Lannes, and John heard the thump, thump of the
feet passing away. But he and the young Frenchman lay still, until the
last echo had died. Then Lannes sat up and peeped over the edge of one
of the tombs.

"They'll search elsewhere," he said, "but they won't come here again.
We'll have to be cautious, however, as they'll never stop, until they've
gone all through the town. Trust the Germans for that. Now aren't you
glad I brought you among the tombs? Could we have found a better hiding
place?"

His manner was so gay and light-hearted that John found it infectious.
Yet, he was resolved not to yield entirely. He had been dragged or
pushed into too desperate a quandary.

"Suppose they don't find us now, what then?" he asked. "It may be all
right for you, but as for me, my uncle and my friend are on the way to
Munich, and I'm marooned in a land, the language of which I don't
understand."

"But you're with me!"

"So I am, but you're a stranger. You belong to a country with which
Germany is at war or going to war. You're a spy, and if you're caught,
which is highly probable, you'll be hanged or shot, and because I'm with
you they'll do the same to me."

Lannes plucked a grass stem and chewed it thoughtfully, although his
eyes at no time lost their cheerful twinkle.

"I do seem to have plunged you into a whole lake of trouble," he said at
length. "I