'll admit that my own neck is in the halter, and it behooves
me to escape as soon as I can, but don't think I'll ever neglect you. I
mean to see that you get to Munich and rejoin your friends."

"How?"

"It's a secret for the present, confined to me. But trust me! can't
you?"

His speech had glided from French into English so good that it was
colloquial, and of the vernacular. Now he looked directly into John's
eyes, and John, looking back, saw only truth in their gray smiling
depths. There are some things that we feel, instinctively, and with
overwhelming power, and he knew that the young Frenchman would be as
true as steel. He held out his hand and said:

"I believe every word you say. I'll ask no questions, but wait for what
happens."

Lannes took the outstretched hand and gave it a grasp of extraordinary
power. The joyous lights in his wonderful gray eyes shifted and changed
with extraordinary rapidity.

"I like you, John Scott, you Yankee," he said. "You and I will be the
best of friends and for life. Thus does the great American republic,
which is you, pledge eternal friendship with France, the great European
republic, which is me."

"You put it well, and now what are we going to do?"

"Graveyards are good places, my old--my old, being as you know, a
translation of _mon vieux_, a term of friendship, becoming to you
because of your grave demeanor--but it's not well to stay in them too
long. You've noticed doubtless that the skies are darkening over the
spur of the Alps toward Salzburg?"

"And what then?"

"It means that we must seek quarters for the night, and night is always
friendly to fugitives. I promised that I'd take you to your friends in
Munich--I can't do it in an hour or even in two, although I'll lead you
to food and a bed, which are not to be despised. But we must wait a
little longer."

"Until night comes fully?"

"Truly, until it's complete night. And, fortunately for you, it will be
very dark, as I see plenty of clouds sailing in this direction from the
mountains."

John, who was lying on his back, looked toward the south, and saw that
the crests of the peaks and ridges were already dim with somber masses
floating northward and westward. The air was growing cooler, and, in a
half hour, the ancient churchyard was sure to be veiled in darkness. For
the present Philip and he relapsed into silence, and John's thoughts
traveled anxiously toward his uncle and Mr. Anson. What would they th