that
they had not even seen her, yet the heart of the stern peasant woman was
warm within her, although she felt that she now had two children instead
of one under her care.

Neither was Suzanne given up wholly to the present. She spent many
anxious hours thinking of the future. The deep snow could not last
forever. Already there was a warmer breath in the air. When it began to
melt it would go fast, and then Auersperg--if he were still at
Zillenstein--eaten up with impatience and anger because he could hear
nothing from the lodge, would act, and he would show no mercy to the
young man with the brown hair and the gray eyes, who was now walking by
the side of her beloved Julie.

John himself took notice the next day of the signs. Spring, which
already held sway in the lowlands, was creeping up the slope of the
highlands. The sun was distinctly warmer and tiny rivulets of water
flowed along the edges of the runways. In a few more days retainers of
Auersperg or troops would come up the mountain. The prince himself might
have been compelled to return to the war, but he would certainly leave
orders in capable hands. John never deluded himself for a moment upon
that subject. His shoveling in the snow made him quite sure now that a
road led over the mountain and southward, and he had made up his mind to
take the automobile and the two women and try it, as soon as the snow
melted enough to permit of such an attempt. One might get through, and
he had proved for himself that fortune favors the daring.

In his explorations on the southern slope he came to a deep gulch in
which the tops of scrub pines showed above the snow. Following its edge
for some distance his eye at length was caught by a dark shape on the
rocks. He climbed slowly and painfully down to it and saw the body of a
man, clothed like a German forester. His neck and many of his bones were
broken, and his body was bruised frightfully.

John had no doubt that it was the missing Muller, and it was altogether
likely that in the storm he had made a misstep, and had fallen into the
ravine to instant death.

"What are you going to do?" asked Julie, who saw him going out, spade on
shoulder.

"I've found Muller at last," he replied soberly.

"Oh! I am sorry!" she said, shuddering as she looked at the spade.

"It's all I can do for him now."

"I'm glad you thought to do as much."

When John returned he had carefully wiped all the earth from the snow
shovel. The s