The way led to the crest of the mountain which hung about two thousand feet above the village and it was a climb requiring some time and endurance, but though John’s pulse beat fast it was with excitement and not with exhaustion.  At the summit he saw the figure emerge upon an open space upon which stood a slender round tower of considerable height.

John stopped at the edge of the pines and saw the figure disappear within the tower, upon the summit of which something presently began to flash and crackle.  He caught his breath and the blood leaped fiercely through his veins.  He knew that the tower was a wireless signal station and that it was talking to another somewhere.  It sent, too, as he well knew, through the velvety blue of the night the message that Mademoiselle Julie Lannes, Suzanne, her maid, and John Scott, the American, were in the village of Obenstein where they could be taken.

He cursed himself for a fool, thrice a fool!  Why had he not understood long before?  Why had he not seen that so many coincidences could not be the result of chance?  Only design and skill could have brought them about!  Who had disabled the automobile in that flight with Carstairs and Wharton from the Germans?  Who had sought to delay Lannes until he could be caught by the enemy?  Who was the mysterious man in the aeroplane who had wounded Philip, who had led John from the chateau under the very rifles of the waiting marksmen, and who had been responsible for Julie’s capture at Chastel?  That letter, purporting to be from Philip, and directing her to come to Chastel, was surely a forgery!

These and all the other details crashed upon him with cumulative force, and he was so mad with fury that he thought his heart would burst with the surging blood.  Why had the man worked with such energy and such cruel persistence against him?  But his wonder quickly passed, because the reason did not matter now.  Instead he put his finger on the trigger of the automatic and waited.

The wireless flashed and crackled for five minutes, then five minutes of silence and the figure of Weber reappeared at the base of the tower.  He lingered there for a little space looking warily about him, before he began the descent of the mountain, and John quietly withdrew further into the pines.  Weber presently crossed the open space, entering the forest, and John, noiseless, retreated before him.

Thus they proceeded down the mountain until the wireless tower was left several hundred yards behind and they were buried deep in the pine forest.  Then John stepped suddenly into the road not twenty yards before the Alsatian and leveling his automatic said sharply: 

“Hands up, Weber!”

Weber started violently and slowly raised his hands.  But he said with composure: 

“Why this sudden violence, Mr. Scott?”

“Because you have been upon the wireless tower signaling to our enemies.  I’ve just understood everything, Weber.  You’re a German and not a French spy, and you’ve played the traitor to Julie and Philip Lannes and me all along.”