ezelay, Jean's
cousin, had a castle on the forest outskirts; I had been to visit it
with Jean and Enid. I wondered if he might be there.

"The more I thought of it, the likelier it seemed. If he had been
wounded and had wanted to hide his papers, he would have remembered the
castle and the secret panel in the wall. Even if he were--dead, which I
wouldn't believe, it would clear his name if I found the proof of it. So
I told Enid I would go to Prezelay."

I was resting my arms on my knees and groaning softly.

"Oh, Lord, oh, Lord!" I murmured, wishing I could stop my ears. When I
thought of that brave venture of the girl's and its perils and what
had nearly come of it I found myself shuddering; and yet I was growing
prouder of her with every word.

"What comes next," she confessed, "is terrible. I can hardly believe
it. As I look back, it seems to me that we were all a little mad. To get
through the war zone to Prezelay I had to have certain papers; and I got
them from an American girl, an old friend of Enid's and of mine, Marie
Le Clair. The morning I arrived in Paris she came to say good-bye to
Enid. She was acting as a Red Cross nurse, and they were sending her to
the hospital at Carrefonds to take the first consignment of the great
new remedy for burns and scars. Carrefonds is very near Prezelay. It all
came to me in a moment. I told her how matters stood and how Enid was
dying little by little, just for lack of any sure knowledge. She gave me
the papers she had for herself and her chauffeur, Jacques Carton, and I
used them for myself and for Georges, Jean's foster-brother, who was
at home from the Front on leave and was staying in his old room at the
house."

"Great Caesar's ghost!" I sputtered. "You didn't--you don't mean to say
that--Why, good heavens, didn't you know--?"

Then I petered off into silence; words were too weak for my emotions.
She had seen the risk of course, and so had the girl who had helped her;
but with the incredible bravery of women, they had acted with open eyes.

"Yes," she faltered; "I told you I felt mad, looking back at it. But
Marie is safe now; Jean has worked for her, and his relatives and
friends have helped, and the minister of war. It was the only way. Under
my own name I could never have got leave to enter the war zone while
Jean was missing and suspected--What is the matter, Mr. Bayne?" For once
more I had groaned aloud.

"Simply," I cried stormily, "that I can't bear thi