erman knapsack to the ground.

"The big police officer?" inquired Tricasse, eagerly.

"Yes, the big one with the red beard. He died hard. I used the
bayonet only," said the franc-tireur, looking moodily at the
dried blood on his hairy fists. "I got a Bavarian sentry, too;
there's the proof."

Jack looked at the helmet. Tricasse ripped up the mail-sack with
his long clasp-knife. "They stole our mail; they will not steal
it again," observed Tricasse, sorting the letters and shuffling
them like cards.

One by one he looked them over, sorted out two, stuffed the rest
into the breast of his sheepskin coat, and stood up.

"There are two letters for you, Monsieur Marche, that were going
to be read by the Prussian police officials," he said, holding
the letters out. "What do you think of our new system of mail
delivery? German delivery, franc-tireur facteur, eh, Monsieur
Marche?"

"Give me the letters," said Jack, quietly.

He sat down and read them both, again and again. Tricasse turned
his back, and stirred the Bavarian helmet with his boot-toe; the
franc-tireur gathered up his spoils, and, at a gesture from
Tricasse, carried them down the slope towards the hidden camp.

"Put out the fire, too," called Tricasse, softly. "I begin to
smell it."

When Jack had finished his reading, he looked up at Tricasse,
folding the letters and placing them in his breast, where the
flat steel box was.

"Letters from Paris," he said. "The Uhlans have appeared in the
Eure-et-Seine and at Melun. They are arming the forts and
enceinte, and the city is being provisioned for a siege."

"Paris!" blurted out Tricasse, aghast.

Jack nodded, silently.

After a moment he resumed: "The Emperor is said to be with the
army near Mezieres on the south bank of the Meuse. We are going
to find him, Mademoiselle de Nesville and I. Tell us what to do."

Tricasse stared at him, incapable of speech.

"Very well," said Jack, gently, "think it over. Tell me, at
least, how we can avoid the German lines. We must start this
evening."

He turned and descended the bank rapidly, letting himself down by
the trunks of the birch saplings, treading softly and cautiously
over stones and dead leaves, for the road was so near that a
careless footstep might perhaps be heard by passing Uhlans. In a
few minutes he crossed the ridge, and descended into the hollow,
where the odour of the extinguished fire lingered in the air.

Lorraine was sitting quietly in t