rt. "Those uniforms! Since we can't go back, we'd better go ahead."

With apparent unconcern they boldly emerged from the woodland.

To their left, about fifty yards back from the highway, stood a quaint
old inn built against a sheer cliff face which in the air seemed to bend
over the puny habitation. To the right stretched fields under
cultivation, but beaten hard under the feet of ten thousand men in the
uniform already noticed.

A little group of officers, well mounted, stood together in the commons
before the hostelry. They caught but the momentary attention of the
interlopers, which, as by some hypnotic influence, was drawn to one of
three men quietly conversing on the stone porch of the inn.

He was short and spare of figure, lean and colorless of face, while
about him hung an atmosphere of grayness.

As the puffing automobile drew up to the steps he turned quietly to
survey its occupants, vividly contrasting the surprise displayed by his
two companions. One of these was evidently the innkeeper from the
professional air of deference which tempered even his amazement, while
the other, square of jowl and deep of eye, was a peasant.

These latter could divert attention for but the moment from the gray
man, their companion, whose face seemed set in a habitual, cynical
smile, the intent of which was inscrutable. The deep creases running
from the corners of the mouth to the narrow nostrils showed the
expression was habitual and without the saving grace of mirthfulness.
Without a doubt he was of those who gain the dislike of the class from
which they are derived and usually not more than the tolerance of those
with whom they are thrown in daily contact. Carter admitted after a
critical survey that the Gray Man, as he mentally dubbed him, was an
exception to this rule. Though he bore every external evidence of being
of the upper servant class, there were power and masterly cunning
disclosed in every line of the set face. He was of those who, in times
of great crises, if they do not attain to power always pass through
dangers which engulf nobler men, to emerge with profit if not with honor
from even a nation's downfall. That behind the grinning mask lay a wide
knowledge of the working of the human mind, Carter saw, as the Gray
Man's crafty eyes weighed the repugnance he knew he had inspired. As
their glances met, uncontrollably, a challenge gleamed in that of the
autoist which was answered by a cold defiance on the pa