national eagle had been insulted in his
nest, and his screams were ringing from mountain-peak to mountain-peak.
The echoes of Mitchell were sending back the cry, and Saint Elias's
snowy top gave forth an answering sound.

Von Rittenheim understood enough of the rapid English to realize its
irrelevancy, and wondered idly why the man was such a fool, not knowing
that it was the presence of a visiting national senator from the hotel
that had inspired this eloquence.

The air grew worse as more and more people pushed into the already
crowded room. Some one opened a window, and some one else immediately
begged to have it shut. There was a constant shuffling of feet and a
restless moving of hands. Friedrich found himself smothered by the
evil-smelling clothes of his companions as he sat against the wall, and
he stood, to bring his head up into a clearer air. The steam in one of
the radiators began to thump and clang, and each crash smote a raw
nerve in his beating temple.

The feeling of striving against the mist, yielding but inexorable, had
him fully in its possession, and through the fog he saw the face of
Wilder, the deputy-marshal. Their eyes met, and the malice in the
officer's drove the German mad. How long must he stand here and wait
among these swine? Yet he remembered many hours of waiting motionless
upon his horse, and he rebuked himself for a poor soldier.

Ah, if only he could tell the whole truth; if only he could stand
before the bar of the world--of God himself--and say, "I am guilty. Of
violating the law I am guilty. I am willing to bear my punishment for
what I have done. But if I am guilty, how is he innocent who brake my
bread and then tempted me? He who ate my last mouthful, and then
offered me an unlawful chance to get more? Is the law of hospitality to
be held of no account? And how is he innocent who poses as my friend,
who drinks from my cup, who holds my hand in his, and who goes forth to
betray me? Is there no law that binds a friend in honor? I have broken
a law--the law of man. Those two men of whom I speak have broken the
laws of the heart, the ties of honor and of love. I am a criminal in
the eyes of men. They are sinners before the face of God."

Friedrich was trembling as he felt these words flow through his mind.
The men on each side of him noticed his agitation, and drew away from
the emotion of his tense face. So insistently did the words ring in his
ears that it seemed to him that he