ympathy.
There is so much German blood in the United States."

"But, as I told Captain von Boehlen, we're a republic, and we're
democrats. In many of the big ideas there's a gulf between us and
Germany so wide that it can never be bridged. This war has made clear
the enormous difference."

Von Arnheim sighed.

"And yet, as a people, we like each other personally," he said.

"That's so, but as nations we diverge absolutely."

"Perhaps, I can't dispute it. But here is our camp. You'll be treated
well. We Germans are not barbarians, as our enemies allege."

John saw fires burning in an ancient wood, through which a clear brook
ran. The ground was carpeted with bodies, which at first he thought were
those of dead men. But they were merely sleepers. German troops in
thousands had dropped in their tracks. It was scarcely sleep, but
something deeper, a stupor of exhaustion so utter, both mental and
physical, that it was like the effect of anesthesia. They lay in every
imaginable position, and they stretched away through the forest in
scores of thousands.

John and Fleury saw their own place at once. Several hundred men in
French uniforms were lying or sitting on the ground in a great group
near the forest. A few slept, but the others, as well as John could see
by the light of the fires, were wide awake.

The sight of the brook gave John a burning thirst, and making a sign to
the German guard, who nodded, he knelt and drank. He did not care
whether the water was pure or not, most likely it was not, with armies
treading their way across it, but as it cut through the dust and grime
of his mouth and throat he felt as if a new and more vigorous life were
flowing into his veins. After drinking once, twice, and thrice, he sat
down on the bank with Fleury, but in a minute or two young von Arnheim
came for him.

"Our commander wishes to talk with you," he said.

"I'm honored," said John, "but conversation is not one of my strong
points."

"The general will make the conversation," said von Arnheim, smiling. "It
will be your duty, as he sees it, to answer questions."

John's liking for von Arnheim grew. He had seldom seen a finer young
man. He was frank and open in manner, and bright blue eyes shone in a
face that bore every sign of honesty. Official enemies he and von
Arnheim were, but real enemies they never could be.

He divined that he would be subjected to a cross-examination, but he had
no objection. Moreover, he w