l do.
Return to the office; I'll be down presently."

"Will Herr hunt this morning?"

"No; what I wish this morning is to see the city of Bleiberg."

"That is simple," said Johann. The fleeting, imperceptible smile did not
convict his eyes of false keenness.

He bowed out. When the door closed the Englishman waited until the sound
of retreating steps failed. Then he took the gun case which he had not
yet opened, and thrust it under the mattress of the bed.

"Johann," he said, as he put on a soft hat and drew a cane from the
straps of the traveling bag, "you will certainly precede me in our
hunting expeditions. I do not like your eyes; they are not at home in
your boyish face. Humph! what a country. Every one speaks a different
tongue."

The city of Bleiberg lay on a hill and in the valleys which fell away
to the east and west. It was divided into two towns, the upper and
the lower. The upper town and that part which lay on the shores of the
Werter See was the modern and fashionable district. It was here that the
king and the archbishop had their palaces and the wealthy their brick
and stone. The public park skirted the lake, and was patterned after
those fine gardens which add so much to the picturesqueness of Vienna
and Berlin. There were wide gravel paths and long avenues of lofty
chestnuts and lindens, iron benches, fountains and winding flower beds.
The park, the palaces, and the Continental Hotel enclosed a public
square, paved with asphalt, called the Hohenstaufenplatz, in the center
of which rose a large marble fountain of several streams, guarded by
huge bronze wolves. Here, too, were iron benches which were, for the
most part, the meeting-place of the nursemaids. Carriages were allowed
to make the circuit, but not to obstruct the way.

The Konigstrasse began at the Platz, divided the city, and wound away
southward, merging into the highway which continued to the Thalian Alps,
some thirty miles distant. The palaces were at the southeast corner of
the Platz, first the king's, then the archbishop's. The private gardens
of each ran into the lake. Directly across from the palaces stood the
cathedral, a relic of five centuries gone. On the northwest corner stood
the Continental Hotel, with terrace and parapet at the water's edge, and
a delightful open-air cafe facing the Platz. September and October were
prosperous months in Bleiberg. Fashionable people who desired quiet made
Bleiberg an objective point. The