d vineyards. The old woman's son
never saw either the burned walls of his house or the bodies of his
wife and children, because he had been killed himself in the battle for
which the Iarovitch were revenging themselves. Only the old
grandmother who lived in the hut near the frontier line and stared
vacantly at the passers-by remained alive. She wearily gazed at people
and wondered why she did not hear news from her son and her
grandchildren. But that was all.

When the boys were over the frontier and well on their way along the
roads, it was not difficult to keep out of sight if it seemed
necessary. The country was mountainous and there were deep and thick
forests by the way--forests so far-reaching and with such thick
undergrowth that full-grown men could easily have hidden themselves.
It was because of this, perhaps, that this part of the country had seen
little fighting. There was too great opportunity for secure ambush for
a foe. As the two travelers went on, they heard of burned villages and
towns destroyed, but they were towns and villages nearer Melzarr and
other fortress-defended cities, or they were in the country surrounding
the castles and estates of powerful nobles and leaders. It was true,
as Marco had said to the white-haired personage, that the Maranovitch
and Iarovitch had fought with the savageness of hyenas until at last
the forces of each side lay torn and bleeding, their strength, their
resources, their supplies exhausted.

Each day left them weaker and more desperate. Europe looked on with
small interest in either party but with growing desire that the
disorder should end and cease to interfere with commerce. All this and
much more Marco and The Rat knew, but, as they made their cautious way
through byways of the maimed and tortured little country, they learned
other things. They learned that the stories of its beauty and
fertility were not romances. Its heaven-reaching mountains, its
immense plains of rich verdure on which flocks and herds might have fed
by thousands, its splendor of deep forest and broad clear rushing
rivers had a primeval majesty such as the first human creatures might
have found on earth in the days of the Garden of Eden. The two boys
traveled through forest and woodland when it was possible to leave the
road. It was safe to thread a way among huge trees and tall ferns and
young saplings. It was not always easy but it was safe. Sometimes
they saw a charcoal-bur