me, months ago! If I
could only write to or hear from them! It may be that this horrible
condition of things is proper punishment for my presumptuous pride, but
why should the innocent suffer? When will this mystery be cleared? What
is being done to convict the guilty?"

Oswald now hopes that English justice will not be delinquent. Surely
detectives can unravel this complicated web. Why are these sleuths so
tardy? He now chafes at the slow zeal of those whose pursuit of Oswald
Langdon would have been resisted to the death. These ministers of
justice, in honest, tireless search for the murderer of Oswald Langdon
and Alice Webster, even now would reckon lightly of their own lives if
they attempted his arrest. But this high-spirited youth feels no tremor
of physical fear. The gallows have no terrors other than those of
unmerited ignominy. Oswald would rush on swift death if thereby the name
of Langdon could be cleared.

He thus upbraids himself: "My flight from London was cowardly. Better
with moral determination to have faced all and accepted my fate. The
death of Alice Webster is unavenged; her slayer is at large, a human
beast of prey; father and mother are in frightful suspense; the spectral
hand of the drowned girl beckons me to revenge upon her murderer; but
ignoring all these, I am a selfish, cowardly 'derelict,' fearful of
possible harm."

Then he exclaims: "Not too fast! Has not English justice gloated over
conviction of the innocent? What fearful irony in some of its swift
so-called vindications! How can public clamor be satisfied but by
sacrifice when there is a victim at hand? What hope that detectives
would pursue Paul Lanier for the murder of Alice Webster with Oswald
Langdon conveniently near? Are not my absence and supposed death
necessary to the unraveling of this intricate plot? In what other way
can the name of Langdon be cleared from pending disgrace?"

Oswald now desires to live until justice triumphs. He sometimes feels
assurance that all will be righted. It is difficult to restrain his
curiosity within discreet bounds.

The camp discussions help to divert his thought from somber reflections.
These informal debates take wide range.

Karl Ludwig is a versatile German. Though thinking it discreet to absent
himself from fatherland, Karl is at heart loyal to his sturdy young
Kaiser. To Karl the memories of imperial Teutonic succession and
achievements are proud heritage. He would champion the real