t every other luxury or
convenience. Besides the great room in which Julie was now sitting, they
found on the ground floor a writing-room well supplied, a small parlor,
a gunroom amply equipped with a variety of arms and ammunition, a
dining-room containing much princely silver, a butler's pantry, a
kitchen and a storeroom holding food enough to last them a year. Above
stairs were six bedrooms, any one of which the capable Suzanne could put
in order in half an hour. All the house had running water drawn from
some reservoir in the mountains.

John had seen such luxurious camps as this in the Adirondacks in his own
country, and there were many others scattered about the mountains of
Europe, but he was very grateful now to find such a refuge for Julie.
Again he realized how fortunate they had been to arrive so early. As he
looked from an upper window he saw that the storm was driving with
tremendous fury. Even behind the huge logs he heard the wind roaring and
thundering, and now and then, through the thick glass of the windows, he
caught a glimpse of a young pine torn up by its roots and whirled past.

Where was Muller, the forester, who had charge of the lodge and who
lived there, and what kind of a man was he? It was the only question
that was troubling him now. If he did not come soon he could not come
that night, nor perhaps the next day. The snowfall was immense, with
every sign of heavy continuance, and by morning it certainly would lie
many feet deep on the mountain. Traveling would be impossible. He heard
the distant sound of a bell, and knowing that the telephone was calling,
he ran down the stairway to the great room. Julie had risen and was
looking at the instrument with dilated eyes, as if it sounded a note of
alarm, as if their happy escape was threatened by a new danger. John
believed that she had fallen asleep before the heat of the fire, and
that the ring of the telephone had struck upon her dreaming ear like a
shell.

"It's he! It's the terrible prince himself!" she exclaimed, her
faculties not yet fully released from cloudy sleep.

"Very likely," said John, "but have no fear. Zillenstein is only six
leagues away at ordinary times, but it's six hundred tonight, with the
greatest storm that I've ever seen sweeping in between us."

He took down the receiver and put it to his ear.

"Who is there?" asked a deep voice, which he knew to be that of Prince
Karl.

"Castel, Your Highness."

"You arrived w