found that Mr. Anson, having
exhausted the newspapers, had gone to his room, and pleasantly weary in
both body and mind, he sought his own bed.

CHAPTER II

THE THUNDERBOLT

John and Mr. Anson ate breakfast not long after daylight, as they
expected to take an early train for Prague. They sat by a window in a
small dining-room, overlooking pleasant gardens, and the Elbe, flowing
just beyond the stretch of grass and flowers. The weather of the fickle
valley had decided once again to be good. The young sunshine gilded the
surface of the river and touched the gray buildings with gold. John was
reluctant to leave it, but he had the anticipation, too, of fresh
conquests, of new cities to be seen and explored.

"We'll be in Prague tonight," he said, "and it will be something very
different, a place much more medieval than any we have yet visited."

"That's so," said Mr. Anson, and he trailed off into a long historical
account of Prague, which would serve the double purpose of instructing
John, and of exhibiting his own learning. The waiter, who could speak
English, and with whom John, being young, did not hesitate to talk at
times, was bent over, pouring coffee at his elbow.

"Pardon me, sir, but where did you say you were going?" he asked almost
in a whisper.

"To Prague?"

"I shouldn't go there, sir, if I were you."

"Why not?"

"You'll run into a war."

"What do you mean, Albrecht?"

But Albrecht was already on the way to the kitchen, and he was so long
in returning that John dismissed his words as merely the idle talk of a
waiter who wished to entertain Herr Simmering's American guests. But
when they went to an agency, according to their custom, to buy the
railway tickets to Prague they were informed that it would be better for
them not to go to the Czech capital. Both were astonished.

"Why shouldn't we go to Prague?" asked Mr. Anson with some indignation.
"I've never heard that the Czechs object to the presence of Americans."

"They don't," replied the agent blandly. "You can go to Prague without
any trouble, but I don't think you could leave it for a long time."

"And why not. Who would wish to hold us in Prague?"

"Nobody in particular. But there would be no passenger trains during the
mobilization."

The eyes of John and Mr. Anson opened wider.

"Mobilization. What mobilization?" asked the elder.

"For the war that Austria-Hungary is going to make on Servia. The
various army corps of