John looked into the great misty world and his face was turned toward the east.  He had no doubt that Auersperg had gone in that direction with Julie, and he meant to find her.  But how?  He prayed silently for the coming of Lannes with the Arrow. For such a search as this the swift aeroplane could serve while one might plod in vain over the ground.  Lannes would come before the next night!  He must come!  If he had made an appointment for such a meeting nothing could delay him more than a day.

He did not have any great fear for Julie’s present safety.  The modern civilized world had suddenly broken loose from many of its anchors, but so conspicuous a man as Auersperg could not stain his name with a deed that would brand him throughout Europe.  Weber, however, had spoken of a morganatic marriage, and fearful pressure might be brought to bear.  A country so energetic and advanced as Germany had clung, nevertheless, to many repellent principles of medievalism.  A nation listened with calm acceptance and complacency, while its Kaiser claimed a partnership, and not altogether a junior partnership either, with the Almighty.  Much could be forgiven to an Auersperg, the head of a house that had been princely more than a thousand years.  John shuddered.

He had not gone to the tent at once as he intended.  His nerves were yet leaping and he knew now that they must become quiet before he could sleep.  Men were moving about him, carrying the wounded or helping with the camp, but they were only misty forms in the white gloom.  Looking again toward the east he saw a silver bar appear just below the horizon.  He knew it was the bright vanguard that heralded the coming sun, and his imaginative, susceptible mind beheld in it once more an omen.  It beckoned him toward the east, and hope rose strong in his heart.

“Wharton,” he said, “I suppose we’ll stay awhile in Chastel.”

“So I hear.  Until noon at least.”

“Then you wake me three hours from now.  It will be enough sleep at such a time, and I want to be up when Lannes comes.  You promise?”

“Certainly, Scott, I’ll do it, though you’ll probably swear at me for bothering you.  Still, I’m ready to do any unpleasant duty for a friend when he asks it.”

John laughed, went into the tent, rolled himself in the blankets and in a minute was fast asleep.  In another minute, as it seemed, Wharton was pulling vigorously at his shoulder.

“Get up, Scott!” exclaimed Wharton.  “Your three hours, and a half hour’s grace that I allowed you, have passed.  Didn’t I tell you that you’d be ungrateful and that you’d fight against me for fulfilling your request!  Open your eyes, man, and stand up!”

John sprang to his feet, shook his head violently several times, and then was wide awake.

“Thanks, Wharton,” he said.  “You’re a true friend but you’re a wretched reckoner of time.”

“How so?”

“You said it was three hours and a half when in reality it was only three minutes and a half.”