lly path into a good road, paved almost
like a street, and breaking from a bush a stout stick, which he used
peasant fashion as a cane, he walked briskly along the smooth surface,
now almost clear of the snow which had fallen in much smaller quantities
in the lowlands.

He met a battery of four twenty-one-centimeter guns with their numerous
crews and an escort of cavalry, advancing to the front, and he stepped
to one side of the road to let them pass. The leader of the cavalry
hailed him and John's heart gave a sudden alarming throb as he
recognized von Boehlen. But his courage came back when he saw that he
would not have known the Prussian had he remained twenty feet away. Von
Boehlen was deeply tanned and much thinner. There were lines in his face
and he had all the appearance of a man who had been through almost
unbearable hardships.

John had no doubt that a long life in the trenches and intense anxiety
had made an equal change in himself. The glass had told him that he
looked more mature, more like a man of thought and experience. Moreover,
he was in the dress of a peasant. After the first painful heartbeat he
awaited von Boehlen with confidence.

"Whence do you come?" asked the colonel of Uhlans--colonel he now was.

John pointed back over his shoulder and then produced his passport,
which Colonel von Boehlen, after reading, handed carefully back to him.

"Did you see anything of the French?" he asked glancing again at John,
but without a sign of recognition.

"No, sir," replied John in his new German with a French accent, "but I
saw a most unpleasant messenger of theirs."

"A messenger? What kind of a messenger?"

"Long, round and made of steel. It came over a mountain and then with a
loud noise divided itself into many parts near the place where I stood.
One messenger turned itself into a thousand messengers, and they were
all messengers of death. Honored sir, I left that vicinity as soon as I
could, and I have been traveling fast, directly away from there, ever
since."

Von Boehlen laughed, and then his strong jaws closed tighter. After a
moment's silence, he said:

"Many such messengers have been passing in recent months. The air has
been full of them. If you don't like battles, Castel, I don't blame you
for traveling in the direction you take."

John, who had turned his face away for precautionary measures, looked
him full in the eyes again, and he found in his heart a little liking
for the Prus