of the most congested battlefield. Now that the crash of
the guns had passed sullenly to a distance, white-tailed rabbits
scurried across the path; some stray sheep, driven from the uplands by
the day's tumult, gathered in a group and looked inquiringly at the
intruder; a weasel, stalking a selected rabbit as is his piratical way,
elected to abandon the chase and leap for a tree.

These very signs showed that none other had breasted the slope recently,
so Dalroy strode out somewhat carelessly. Nevertheless, he was endowed
with no small measure of that sixth sense which every _shikari_ must
possess who would hunt either his fellowmen or the beasts of the jungle.
He was passing a dense clump of brambles and briars when a man sprang at
him. He had trained himself to act promptly in such circumstances, and
had decided long ago that to remain on the same ground, or even try to
retreat, was courting disaster. His plan was to jump sideways, and, if
practicable, a little nearer an assailant. The sabots rendered him less
nimble than usual, but the dodge quite disconcerted an awkward opponent.
The vicious downward sweep of a heavy cudgel just missed his left
shoulder, and he got home with the right in a half-arm jab which sent
the recipient sprawling and nearly into the stream.

Dalroy made after him, seized the fallen stick, and recognised--Jan
Maertz! "How now," he said wrathfully, "are you, too, a Prussian?"

Jan raised a hand to ward off the expected blow. "_Caput!_" he cried.
"I'm done! You must be the devil! But may the Lord help my poor master
and mistress, and the little Leontine!"

"That is my wish also, sheep's-head! What evil have I done you, then,
that you should want to brain me at sight?"

"They're after you--the Germans. They mean to catch you, dead or
alive. A lieutenant of the Guard pulled me away from in front of a
firing-party, and gave me my life on condition that I ran you down."

Here was an extraordinary development. It was vitally important that
Dalroy should get to know the exact meaning of the Walloon's disjointed
utterances, yet how could he wait and question the man while the
Prussian sultans were feasting in the mill?

Dalroy stooped over Maertz, who had risen to his knees, and caught him
by the shoulder. "Jan Maertz," he said, "do you hope to marry Leontine
Joos? If so, Heaven has just prevented you from committing a great
crime. She, and her mother, and the lady who came with me from Aix, are