John wondered what had become of his comrades.  Was Lannes well, and had he got his message?  Were Carstairs and Wharton still alive, and where was Weber?  They were questions the solution of which must wait upon the success of his quest, and therefore the answer might never come.  But he fiercely put away such a thought.  He would succeed!  He must succeed!

He was not walking in the dark.  He had learned that Auersperg and his people had arrived at Salzburg two days before, and had left after a few hours for Zillenstein.  The prince was in excellent health and would not remain at his castle more than a week.  Then he would return to the western front, where he was one of the great generals around the Kaiser.  He had brought with him two Frenchwomen, spies, who would be imprisoned in the dungeons of Zillenstein until the war was over, if, indeed, they were not shot before.  One, it was said, was very young, and beautiful, but she was the more dangerous of the two.

Poor Julie! there was a conspiracy of fate against her, but John shook himself and felt his courage rising anew, powerful, indomitable, invincible.  He had come so far alone, and he would rescue her with his single hand!  He went back to the inn and sat for a while among peasants and listened to their talk.  They knew little of what was passing beyond the Teutonic empires.  As usual in Germany and Austria, they accepted what the men higher up told them.  They were always winning victories everywhere, and it would be but a short time before the treacherous English, the wicked French and the ignorant Russians were crushed.

John yawned after a while and went to his room.  He intended to be fresh and strong the next morning when he started on the last stage of his search, and when the dawn came he was glad to see that it was clear and bright.  By noon he was deep among the hills, and so far had answered all questions without arousing any suspicion.  But he knew that trouble about his identity was bound to come in time.  He could not go on forever, playing the role of Jean Castel, a horse-buyer from Lorraine.  Lorraine was far away now, and he was beyond his natural range.

And yet his frank young face and smiling eyes were continually making him friends where he expected none.  Explanations that might have seemed doubtful coming from others were convincing when he spoke them, and here in this hostile land, where he would have been executed as a spy, his identity known, he was instead helped on his way.

Late in the afternoon, when he was high up on the shoulder of a mountain he came to one of the little wayside shrines that one sees in the Catholic countries of the Old World.  A small stream of clear, green water ran almost at the feet of the image, and he knelt and drank.  Then he sat down to eat a little bread and sausage from his knapsack, and, while he was there, a middle-aged woman with two young boys also came to the shrine, before which they knelt and prayed.  When they rose John politely offered them a portion of his bread and sausage, but they declined it, thanking him, and bringing forth food of their own, ate it.