?"

Then John related the presence of Julie Lannes in Chastel and the manner
of her capture by Auersperg. He told, too, why she had come there.

General Vaugirard puffed out his huge cheeks and whistled a note or two.

"I can't understand why Lannes should have wanted her to come to such an
exposed place," he said. "But youth is daring and doesn't always count
the risks."

Youth _was_ daring and John resolved that he would help to prove it.

"General," he said, "could I ask your aid in a little matter that
concerns me?"

"If it is not to betray our army to the Germans I think you can."

"I want you to help me to become a spy. I'll make the request to Captain
Colton, and then, if it's indorsed, I'll go eastward and see what I can
find out about the Germans."

"But I understood that she was not a German."

John reddened from brow to chin.

"I admit that much," he said, "but at the same time I intend to serve
France all I can. I might be of more help that way than as a mere minor
officer in the trenches."

"If you're successful, yes; if caught, all's lost. Hard trade, that of
spy."

"But I want to go, sir. I never wanted to do anything so much before in
my life. You'll help me, won't you?"

"But how can you go among the Germans? Your German is not the best in
the world."

"It's better than you think. I've been devoting most of my leisure to
the study of it in the last six months. Besides there are subjects of
Germany who do not speak German at all. I shall claim to be a native of
French Lorraine. I learned French in my infancy and I speak it not like
an American or an Englishman but like a Frenchman."

"That helps a lot. What's to be your new name?"

It was not a matter to which John had given any thought, but as he
glanced at the ruined town the question solved itself.

"Chastel, Castel," he said. "I shall drop the 'h' and call myself Jean
Louis Castel, born in French Lorraine in 1893, after that region had
enjoyed for more than twenty years the glorious benefits of German
military rule."

"Very well," said the General. "Now go and see Captain Colton."

Captain Colton's lips twisted into a crooked smile when he heard John.
His glance was a mingling of sympathy and apprehension. He knew the
great dangers of the quest, but he liked John Scott and he could
understand.

"John," he said, calling him by his first name, "I would not send
anybody upon such an errand as yours. You recognize the fact that