must stay where you can hear when I call. Afterwards you must promise me
to go away. I don't know what I ought to do about you."

Sally had gone a few yards from the chateau when she glanced back an
instant toward the old stone ruins. The atmosphere of the afternoon had
changed, the sun was no longer shining and the chateau lay deep in
shadow.

A cold wind was blowing across the desolate fields. Sally was not
ordinarily impressionable, yet at this moment she felt a curious sense
of foreboding.

CHAPTER X

BREAKERS AHEAD

A little tired and also because her attention was occupied with her
recent experience, Sally did not choose her way over the rough
countryside so carefully and therefore managed to take a much longer
time for her return to the farm.

Now that the sun had disappeared, the countryside seemed to have grown
depressingly desolate. In the gray afternoon light the blackened tree
trunks which had been partly burned were stark and ugly.

Under ordinary circumstances Sally was particularly susceptible to
physical discomfort, yet this afternoon she was too concerned over her
problem to be more than vaguely disturbed by her surroundings.

One thought continually assailed her. Would it be possible to appear
among the other girls looking and behaving as if nothing unusual had
occurred? For Sally had an honest and profound conviction that she had
no talent for deception. How could she realize that she belonged to the
type of women with whom dissimulation is a fine art once the exigencies
of a situation required it? She had come to one definite conclusion, she
would not betray the presence of the runaway soldier in the chateau for
at least another twenty-four hours. She would take him food the next day
and he might have the opportunity to attempt an escape. In all
probability he would soon be captured and punished, and this was
doubtless the fate he deserved; nevertheless Sally was glad that, in a
cowardly fashion, she would not be directly responsible.

She looked forward to the evening and the next day with no joy, bitterly
regretting that she had not spent her leisure hours in resting and
reading as she had at first intended. Surely repose and a contented
spirit were more to be desired than unexpected adventures!

Weary and dispirited, Sally finally arrived at home, only to be met in
the front hall by Miss Patricia, who at once showed signs of an
approaching storm.

As a matter of fact, she w