eber? They were questions the solution of which must wait upon the
success of his quest, and therefore the answer might never come. But he
fiercely put away such a thought. He would succeed! He must succeed!

He was not walking in the dark. He had learned that Auersperg and his
people had arrived at Salzburg two days before, and had left after a few
hours for Zillenstein. The prince was in excellent health and would not
remain at his castle more than a week. Then he would return to the
western front, where he was one of the great generals around the Kaiser.
He had brought with him two Frenchwomen, spies, who would be imprisoned
in the dungeons of Zillenstein until the war was over, if, indeed, they
were not shot before. One, it was said, was very young, and beautiful,
but she was the more dangerous of the two.

Poor Julie! there was a conspiracy of fate against her, but John shook
himself and felt his courage rising anew, powerful, indomitable,
invincible. He had come so far alone, and he would rescue her with his
single hand! He went back to the inn and sat for a while among peasants
and listened to their talk. They knew little of what was passing beyond
the Teutonic empires. As usual in Germany and Austria, they accepted
what the men higher up told them. They were always winning victories
everywhere, and it would be but a short time before the treacherous
English, the wicked French and the ignorant Russians were crushed.

John yawned after a while and went to his room. He intended to be fresh
and strong the next morning when he started on the last stage of his
search, and when the dawn came he was glad to see that it was clear and
bright. By noon he was deep among the hills, and so far had answered all
questions without arousing any suspicion. But he knew that trouble
about his identity was bound to come in time. He could not go on
forever, playing the role of Jean Castel, a horse-buyer from Lorraine.
Lorraine was far away now, and he was beyond his natural range.

And yet his frank young face and smiling eyes were continually making
him friends where he expected none. Explanations that might have seemed
doubtful coming from others were convincing when he spoke them, and here
in this hostile land, where he would have been executed as a spy, his
identity known, he was instead helped on his way.

Late in the afternoon, when he was high up on the shoulder of a mountain
he came to one of the little wayside shrines that