Part 6 (1/2)
”Luckily the big tombs of dead and forgotten Germans rise on either side of us,” whispered Lannes, ”and the chances are good that we won't be discovered, but we must keep on lying close. We're on the German side in this town and the Germans will look longer than the Austrians. They're at the end of the alley now, not thirty feet away.”
John heard them marching. The thump, thump of solid German feet was plainly audible. It was a sound that he was to hear again, and again, and never forget, that heavy thump, thump of the marching German feet, a great military empire going forward to crush or be crushed. Even in those moments he was impressed less by his sense of personal danger than by his feeling that a nation was on the march.
”They've turned,” said Lannes, and John heard the thump, thump of the feet pa.s.sing away. But he and the young Frenchman lay still, until the last echo had died. Then Lannes sat up and peeped over the edge of one of the tombs.
”They'll search elsewhere,” he said, ”but they won't come here again.
We'll have to be cautious, however, as they'll never stop, until they've gone all through the town. Trust the Germans for that. Now aren't you glad I brought you among the tombs? Could we have found a better hiding place?”
His manner was so gay and light-hearted that John found it infectious.
Yet, he was resolved not to yield entirely. He had been dragged or pushed into too desperate a quandary.
”Suppose they don't find us now, what then?” he asked. ”It may be all right for you, but as for me, my uncle and my friend are on the way to Munich, and I'm marooned in a land, the language of which I don't understand.”
”But you're with me!”
”So I am, but you're a stranger. You belong to a country with which Germany is at war or going to war. You're a spy, and if you're caught, which is highly probable, you'll be hanged or shot, and because I'm with you they'll do the same to me.”
Lannes plucked a gra.s.s stem and chewed it thoughtfully, although his eyes at no time lost their cheerful twinkle.
”I do seem to have plunged you into a whole lake of trouble,” he said at length. ”I'll admit that my own neck is in the halter, and it behooves me to escape as soon as I can, but don't think I'll ever neglect you. I mean to see that you get to Munich and rejoin your friends.”
”How?”
”It's a secret for the present, confined to me. But trust me! can't you?”
His speech had glided from French into English so good that it was colloquial, and of the vernacular. Now he looked directly into John's eyes, and John, looking back, saw only truth in their gray smiling depths. There are some things that we feel, instinctively, and with overwhelming power, and he knew that the young Frenchman would be as true as steel. He held out his hand and said:
”I believe every word you say. I'll ask no questions, but wait for what happens.”
Lannes took the outstretched hand and gave it a grasp of extraordinary power. The joyous lights in his wonderful gray eyes s.h.i.+fted and changed with extraordinary rapidity.
”I like you, John Scott, you Yankee,” he said. ”You and I will be the best of friends and for life. Thus does the great American republic, which is you, pledge eternal friends.h.i.+p with France, the great European republic, which is me.”
”You put it well, and now what are we going to do?”
”Graveyards are good places, my old--my old, being as you know, a translation of _mon vieux_, a term of friends.h.i.+p, becoming to you because of your grave demeanor--but it's not well to stay in them too long. You've noticed doubtless that the skies are darkening over the spur of the Alps toward Salzburg?”
”And what then?”
”It means that we must seek quarters for the night, and night is always friendly to fugitives. I promised that I'd take you to your friends in Munich--I can't do it in an hour or even in two, although I'll lead you to food and a bed, which are not to be despised. But we must wait a little longer.”
”Until night comes fully?”
”Truly, until it's complete night. And, fortunately for you, it will be very dark, as I see plenty of clouds sailing in this direction from the mountains.”
John, who was lying on his back, looked toward the south, and saw that the crests of the peaks and ridges were already dim with somber ma.s.ses floating northward and westward. The air was growing cooler, and, in a half hour, the ancient churchyard was sure to be veiled in darkness. For the present Philip and he relapsed into silence, and John's thoughts traveled anxiously toward his uncle and Mr. Anson. What would they think had become of him? He knew that the Senator who was very fond of him would be alarmed greatly, and it was a bad time in Europe for any one to be missing.
But there was stern stuff in John Scott, and knowing that they must wait he put anxiety from him as much as he could and waited.
The heavy clouds, although they did not give forth rain, swept up, and brought black darkness with them. The white tombstones became pale, and the town beyond was invisible. Lannes rose and stretched himself deliberately, limb by limb.
”Are you willing, John Scott?” he asked, ”to follow me and ask no questions?”