understand the meaning of the conversation which immediately took place
between the two men. But the car still moved forward as rapidly as
before, and in a moment when they skidded around a passing vehicle and
dangerously near a stone wall, she found herself wishing that Captain
Goritz had chosen to enter the limousine, leaving all the wits of their
astonishing chauffeur for the exigencies of the road.

But as the front window was down, a tribute to the confidence her jailer
now reposed in her, fragments of their conversation reached her.

"A road--away from trunk-lines. Jarmeritz, perhaps.... It should not be
difficult--a Peugeot if possible, or a Mercedes--its age would tell. At
any time now.... A detour here, I think--there is a telegraph line along
the hill yonder.... It would be better in a more desolate place, in the
foothills of the Maehrische-Hoehe. It is a matter of luck, Karl. We must
chance it."

She saw the chauffeur nodding and putting in here and there a
suggestion, while every little while she caught an allusion to herself.
She had no inkling of the meaning of this extraordinary conversation nor
of the way the man called Karl now slowed down as they passed other
machines either going or coming, and gazed at them with a critical air,
shaking his head as he passed on at redoubled speed. But the mystery was
soon to be revealed to her, for on a long piece of level road which went
straight through a strip of pine woods, she felt the machine leap
suddenly forward and heard the comments of the men in front.

"I cannot tell at this distance. A good one, I should say, and new." And
gazing through the dust before her she made out the lines of a
touring-car traveling rapidly in the same direction as their own. Karl's
motor horn sent a deep blast, but the fellow in front was in no mood to
give him the road. He repeated it loudly, warningly, encroaching upon
the rear wheels of the touring car, and at last the other car slowed
down, and as the road was narrow, drew aside into a shallow ditch. But
instead of putting on speed in passing, as he had done before, the
chauffeur Karl merely drew up a little ahead of the other car and held
out his hand as a signal to stop while Captain Goritz quickly clambered
down into the road and stood just below Marishka where she could quite
easily hear the conversation which followed. The people in the touring
car were a chauffeur, a stout man and a small boy. Captain Goritz was
bowin