away; we shall have no trouble in finding someone to guide us to it."

Jean, accustomed as he was to look at things coolly and calculate
chances, put his veto on the mad scheme, although he, too, in his
revolt, was beginning to meditate the possibilities of an escape.

"Have you taken leave of your senses! the guard will fire on us, and we
shall both be killed."

But Maurice replied there was a chance the soldiers might not hit them,
and then, after all, if their aim should prove true, it would not matter
so very much.

"Very well!" rejoined Jean, "but what is going to become of us
afterward, dressed in uniform as we are? You know perfectly well that
the country is swarming in every direction with Prussian troops; we
could not go far unless we had other clothes to put on. No, no, my lad,
it's too risky; I'll not let you attempt such an insane project."

And he took the young man's arm and held it pressed against his side,
as if they were mutually sustaining each other, continuing meanwhile to
chide and soothe him in a tone that was at once rough and affectionate.

Just then the sound of a whispered conversation close behind them caused
them to turn and look around. It was Chouteau and Loubet, who had left
the peninsula of Iges that morning at the same time as they, and whom
they had managed to steer clear of until the present moment. Now the
two worthies were close at their heels, and Chouteau must have overheard
Maurice's words, his plan for escaping through the mazes of a forest,
for he had adopted it on his own behalf. His breath was hot upon their
neck as he murmured:

"Say, comrades, count us in on that. That's a capital idea of yours, to
skip the ranch. Some of the boys have gone already, and sure we're not
going to be such fools as to let those bloody pigs drag us away like
dogs into their infernal country. What do you say, eh? Shall we four
make a break for liberty?"

Maurice's excitement was rising to fever-heat again; Jean turned and
said to the tempter:

"If you are so anxious to get away, why don't you go? there's nothing to
prevent you. What are you up to, any way?"

He flinched a little before the corporal's direct glance, and allowed
the true motive of his proposal to escape him.

"_Dame_! it would be better that four should share the undertaking. One
or two of us might have a chance of getting off."

Then Jean, with an emphatic shake of the head, refused to have anything
whatever to do with