Part 35 (1/2)

”Help you!” exclaimed Carstairs. ”Of course we will! Any friend of France is a friend of ours!”

He bent low over the wheel once more in his old speeding att.i.tude, and the car shot forward like an arrow.

CHAPTER XII

THE ABANDONED CHaTEAU

John glanced back toward the point from which the shots had come, but it was already hidden by the curve of the hill. Moreover, the car was going so fast now that the Uhlans would be left as if standing still, and he turned his attention to the man who had crumpled at his very feet.

The stranger lay in a heap on the floor of the car, his breath coming in short gasps from sobbing lungs. There were red stains on the arms and right shoulder of his coat. John felt a great pity and dragged him into one of the seats. Then he uttered a cry of surprise. The features under their mask of blood and dirt were familiar.

”Weber!” he exclaimed.

Weber stared back.

”You, whom I met at the inn!” he said, ”and your friends!”

”Yes, we're all here,” said John cheerily. ”This is indeed a singular chance!”

”A most fortunate one for me,” said Weber, straightening himself, and endeavoring to arrange his clothing--it appeared that his pride was returning. ”After this I shall think that Providence is watching over me. A man on foot seeking to escape has little chance against hors.e.m.e.n.

I saw the automobile moving slowly and I sprang into it, intending to make the appeal which has been successful.”

”Look who's here,” said John to his comrades. ”We've rescued Weber, the Alsatian, from the Uhlans. Battered a bit, but still in the ring and good for many another escape.”

”So it is,” said Carstairs, reaching back a hand. ”We happened along just in time, Weber. It's a way we three have. I've no doubt that we'll rescue you at least a half dozen times more.”

Weber grasped the proffered hand and shook it eagerly. Wharton bowed in a friendly manner, but he was still preoccupied. His hand rested on that point in his coat, beneath which the papers lay, and his thoughts were not with the fourth arrival in the car.

”Your wounds!” said John. ”This is an automobile of princes, and for the present we are the princes. I've no doubt we can find in these lockers and drawers material of which to make bandages.”

”They're slight. They don't matter,” said Weber. ”Pay no attention to them at a time like this. I know that you must be going toward the main French army, and time is of value. My strength is coming back now, and my courage, too. I will admit I was frightened. I thought my time had come. Perhaps that may seem a disgraceful confession, but it's true.”

”Not disgraceful at all,” said John sympathetically. ”I haven't been a soldier more than a few days, but it's been long enough to teach me that brave men are often scared. What were you doing and how did you happen to come so near to being caught?”

”I've been inside the German lines. Oh, they're not so far away! And I was slipping out I had pa.s.sed all, but a body of Uhlans, under a captain, von Boehlen, an uncommonly shrewd man. If I had been caught by him I would now be singing with the angels in Paradise.”

He smiled faintly.

”I've met von Boehlen,” said John, ”and if he suspected you, you acted wisely to run with all your might. I saw him in Dresden on the eve of the war, and I've seen him since, though at some distance.”

”We'll forget my narrow escape now,” said Weber cheerfully.

”One can't remember such things long in these times.”

”They're tremendous times.”

”So tremendous that as soon as you've made one escape with your life you're due for another.”