cape southward through the mountains
would be attended by great danger, not only from the Austrians, but
from the risks of the road itself, when the great automobile, slipping
on melting snow and ice, might go crashing at any moment into a gorge.
Yet it must be done. Another day brought home the extreme necessity of
it. All the mountains thundered with the sliding snow, and the prince's
men would certainly come soon.

The garage contained an ample supply of gasoline and extra tires, and
John saw that the machine was in perfect order. He also stored in it
clothing, food for many days, two rifles and many cartridges. It was
thus at once a carriage, a home and a fortress. Then he told Julie that
they must start the next morning. Enough snow was gone to disclose the
road leading southward, and he believed that he could drive the
limousine down the mountain.

"Are you willing to trust yourself to me, Julie?" he asked.

"Through everything," she replied.

Suzanne also was eager to go, and, in her character now as a full member
of the little company, she did not hesitate to say so.

"Our comfort here may cause us to linger too long, sir," she said to
John, when Julie was not present. "My mistress has been twice in the
hands of the Prince of Auersperg and twice through you she has escaped
him. There is certain death for you if he finds you and I know not what
for my mistress if she should be taken by him once more. Hardened by his
years and her resistance he would seek to break her. It has seemed to
me sometimes, sir, that you were sent by God to save us."

The woman's faith, which had so completely replaced her original
distrust and hostility, moved John.

"Suzanne," he said, "she shall never again be in the power of that man.
I don't know what the future holds for us, but I think I can promise her
escape from Auersperg."

"And others will come to help us," said Suzanne, with all the intensity
of a prophetess. "You left word, you have said, which way you were
going, and it will reach Monsieur Philip. It will not be so hard to
trace us to Zillenstein, and he will surely follow. He flies in the air
like the eagle, and we will see him some day black against the sky."

The two by the same impulse looked up. But there was nothing showing in
the blue vault, save feathery white clouds. Nevertheless the faith of
neither was dimmed.

"I feel the certainty of it, too," said John. "Philip and the _Arrow_
will answer to our ca