a few hundred
yards away, now clearly visible despite the massive clouds that floated
persistently across the sky. Yet he made no attempt to reach it until
his work was done, nor did he speak of it, not even to the chauffeur,
Mallet, of whom he had made a good friend.

Near noon, the task finished, he ate luncheon and started toward
Chastel. His orders from Captain Colton allowed him much liberty, and he
was not compelled to account to anyone, when he chose to enter the town.
He crossed the stream, muddy from the melting snow, on a small stone
bridge, which he believed from its steep arch must date almost back to
the time of the Romans, and pausing on the other side looked up once
more at Chastel. He had no doubt that, seen in the sunshine and as it
was, it had been both picturesque and beautiful. But now it lay half in
ruins, under a sullen sky, and he beheld no sign of life. Just above him
within its grounds stood a large chateau, that had been riven through
and through by shells. The walls looked as if they were ready to fall
apart and John shivered a little. Farther on was a public building of
some kind, destroyed by fire, all save the walls which stood, blackened
and desolate, and now he saw that the cathedral too had been damaged.

A flake of snow, large and damp, settled on his hand. The clouds were
massing, directly over his head, and he feared another fall. It was
unfortunate, but nothing could drive him back, and finding a flight of
stone steps he ascended them and entered the village.

Chastel had looked somber from the plain below, where some of the
effect, John had thought, might be due to distance, but here it was a
silent ruin, tragic and terrible. Over this village, once so neat and
trim, as he could easily see, war had swept in its most hideous fashion.
Houses were riddled and the gray light showed through them from wall to
wall where the great shells had passed. A bronze statue standing in a
fountain in the center of the little place or square had been struck,
and it lay prone and shattered in the water.

The first flakes of the new snow began to fall, and the sinister sky,
heavy with clouds, took on the darkness of twilight, although night was
far away. Yet the huge rents and holes in the houses and the fallen
masonry seemed to grow more distinct in the gloom. The village consisted
chiefly of one long street, and as John looked up and down it, he did
not see a single human being. Nothing was visibl