k," said John, "but I see its ghosts walking, and
I'm as anxious to get away from it as you are."

Nor were Antoine and Suzanne reluctant, and they hurried out to enter
another house which had suffered a similar fate. They passed through a
half-dozen, all torn and shattered by monster shells, and at last they
came to one which had before it a stretch of grass, a pebbled walk, a
fountain, now dry, and benches painted green, under their covering of
snow.

"An inn!" said John. "This is surely Chastel's hotel. Either the de
l'Europe, the Grand or the Hollande, because more than half the hotels
in Europe bear one or the other of those names. Is it not fitting, Miss
Julie, that we should enter and take our rest in an inn?"

She looked at it with sparkling eyes. Again the spirit of adventure was
high within her.

"It seems to be undamaged," she said. "Perhaps we'll find someone
there."

John shook his head.

"No, Miss Julie," he said, "I'm convinced that it's silent and alone.
You'll observe that no smoke is rising from any of its chimneys, and
every window that we can see is dark."

"What do you say, Antoine, and you Suzanne?" asked Julie.

"It is evident, since the inn has no other guests, that we have been
sent here by the Supreme Power, for what purpose I know not," replied
Suzanne, devoutly.

"Then there is no need to delay longer," said John, and, leading the way
up the pebbled walk, he pushed open the central door.

CHAPTER IV

THE HOTEL AT CHASTEL

John was fast finding that in a crowded country like Europe, suddenly
ravaged by war, nothing was more common than abandoned houses. People
were continually fleeing at a moment's warning. He had already made use
of two or three, at a time when they were needed most, and here was
another awaiting him. Before he pushed open the door he had already read
above it, despite the incrustations of snow, the sign, "Hotel de
l'Europe," and he felt intuitively that they were coming into good
quarters. He was so confident of it that his cheerful mood deepened,
turned in fact into joyousness.

As he held open the door he took off his cap, bowed low and said:

"Enter my humble hotel, Madame la Princesse. Our guests are all too few
now, but I promise you, Your Highness, that you and your entourage shall
have the best the house affords. Behold, the orchestra began the moment
you entered!"

As he spoke the deep thunder of guns came from invisible points along
the