dropping through the night between sky and
earth.

"You damned coward!" stammered Rickerl, pointing a shaking hand
at Von Steyr.

"God keep you when our sabres meet!" said Von Steyr, between his
teeth.

Rickerl burst into an angry laugh.

"Where is your prisoner?" he cried.

Von Steyr stared around him, right and left--Jack was gone.

"Let others prefer charges," said Rickerl, contemptuously--"if
you escape my sabre in the morning."

"Let them," said Von Steyr, quietly, but his face worked
convulsively.

"Second platoon dismount to search for escaped prisoner!" he
cried. "Open order! Forward!"

XIX

RICKERL'S SABRE

Jack, lying full length in the depths of the forest, listened
fearfully for the sounds of the human pack on his heels. The
blackness was stupefying; the thud of his own heart seemed to
fill the shrouded forest like the roll of a muffled drum.
Presently he crept on again, noiselessly, painfully, closing his
eyes when the invisible twigs brushed his face.

He did not know where he was going, he only thought of getting
away, anywhere--away from that hangman's rope.

Again he rested, suffocated by the tumult in his breast, burning
with thirst. For a long while he lay listening; there was not a
sound in the night. Little by little his coolness returned; he
thought of Lorraine and his promise, and he knew that now he
could not keep it. He thought, too, of the marquis, never
doubting the terrible fate of the half-crazed man. He had seen
him stun the soldier with a blow of the steel box, he had seen
the balloon shoot up into the midnight sky, he had heard the shot
and caught a glimpse of the glare of the burning balloon.
Somewhere in the forest the battered body of the marquis lay in
the wreck of the shattered car. The steel box, too, lay
there--the box that was so precious to the Germans.

He rose to his knees, felt around among the underbrush, bent his
head and crept on, parting leaves and branches with one hand,
holding the other over his eyes. The thought that he might be
moving in a circle filled him with fear. But that was exactly
what he was doing, for now he found himself close to the park
wall; and, listening, he heard the river murmuring among the
alders. He halted, utterly at a loss. If he were caught again
could Rickerl save him? What could a captain of Uhlans do? True,
he had interfered with Von Steyr's hangman's work, but that was
nothing but a reprieve at best.

The mu