uinted along his
level rifle.

"Halt!" he said with a pleasant, rising inflection in his quiet voice.
"Stand very still, gentlemen," he added in German.

"Drop your rifles. Drop 'em quick!" he repeated more sharply. "Up with
your hands--hold them up high! Higher, if you please!--quickly. Now, then,
what are you doing on this alp?"

What they were doing seemed apparent enough--two gentlemen of Teutonic
persuasion, out stalking game--deer, rehbok or chamois--one a tall, dark,
nice-looking young fellow wearing the usual rough gray jacket with
stag-horn buttons, green felt hat with feather, and leather breeches of
the alpine hunter. His knees and aristocratic ankles were bare and
bronzed. He laughed a little as he held up his arms.

The other man was stout and stocky rather than fat. He had the square red
face and bushy beard of a beer-nourished Teuton and the spectacles of a
Herr Professor. He held up his blunt hands with all ten stubby fingers
spread out wide. They seemed rather soiled.

From his _ruecksack_ stuck out a butterfly net in two sections and the
deeply scalloped, silver-trimmed butt of a sporting rifle. Edelweiss
adorned his green felt hat; a green tin box punched full of holes was
slung from his broad shoulders.

Brown, lowering his rifle cautiously, was already getting to his feet from
the trampled bracken, when, behind him, he heard Stent's astonished voice
break forth in pedantic German:

"Siurd! Is it _thou_ then?"

"Harry Stent!" returned the dark, nice-looking young fellow amiably. And,
in a delightful voice and charming English:

"Pray, am I to offer you a shake hands," he inquired smilingly; "or shall
I continue to invoke the Olympian gods with classically uplifted and
imploring arms?"

Brown let Stent pass forward. Then, stepping back, he watched the greeting
between these two old classmates. His rifle, grasped between stock and
barrel, hung loosely between both hands. His expression became vacantly
good humoured; but his brain was working like lightning.

Stent's firm hand encountered Von Glahn's and held it in questioning
astonishment. Looking him in the eyes he said slowly: "Siurd, it is good
to see you again. It is amazing to meet you this way. I am glad. I have
never forgotten you.... Only a moment ago I was speaking to Brown about
you--of our wonderful ibex hunt! I was telling Brown--my comrade--" he
turned his head slightly and presented the two young men--"Mr. Brown, an
American