ll."

"And my father," said Suzanne in the same tones of unshakable faith. "He
was left a prisoner in Munich, but few prisons can hold Antoine Picard.
He will surely seek us through all the mountains."

John's faith was already strong, but Suzanne's made it stronger. A high
nature always tries to deserve the trust it receives. Early the
following morning the automobile was ready, and Julie and Suzanne,
wrapped in their cloaks, took their places inside. John stood beside it,
in chauffeur's garb with cap and glasses.

"It's the last look at the lodge, Julie," he said. "When the Prince of
Auersperg built it he never dreamed that it would serve as a refuge for
those who were escaping from him. But it hasn't been such a bad home,
has it?"

"No," she replied. "It will always have a place among my pleasant
memories."

"And among mine."

He sprang into his seat and grasped the wheel. The automobile began a
slow and cautious descent of the mountain's southward slope. However
reluctant one is to prepare for a start there is invariably a certain
elation after the start is made, and John felt the uplift now. He could
not yet see his way out of Austria, but he felt that he would find it.
He did not even know where their present road led, except that it
disappeared in a valley, filled with mists and vapors from the melting
snows.

John had preserved the pass given to him by the German officer, and
thinking he might be able to make use of it again, he dropped the name
of John Scott once more and returned to that of Jean Castel, asking
Julie and Suzanne to remember the change, whenever they should meet
anyone. But it was a long before they saw a human being.

They came at last to the bottom of a narrow valley, and the strain of
driving under such dangerous circumstances had been so great that John
felt compelled to take a rest of a half-hour. Julie descended from the
machine and walked back and forth in the road. They saw that they were
in a narrow valley down which flowed a stream, much swollen by the
melting snow. But the grass and foliage were heavy here and the air was
warm.

"I have resolved, Julie," said John, "to say, if we are pressed closely,
that you are a lady of the household of the Prince of Auersperg,
accompanied by your maid, and that, wishing to get out of the war zone,
I'm deputed to carry you to the port of Trieste. I can't think of
anything else that seems likely to serve us better."

"We're in your han