which had been much fought over in the earlier stages of the war. Since
the German lines were still in France some peasants had returned to
their homes, but many houses were yet abandoned, their owners probably
thinking that the tide of battle would roll back upon them, and that it
was better to wait.

He turned presently from the hilly path into a good road, paved almost
like a street, and breaking from a bush a stout stick, which he used
peasant fashion as a cane, he walked briskly along the smooth surface,
now almost clear of the snow which had fallen in much smaller quantities
in the lowlands.

He met a battery of four twenty-one-centimeter guns with their numerous
crews and an escort of cavalry, advancing to the front, and he stepped
to one side of the road to let them pass. The leader of the cavalry
hailed him and John's heart gave a sudden alarming throb as he
recognized von Boehlen. But his courage came back when he saw that he
would not have known the Prussian had he remained twenty feet away. Von
Boehlen was deeply tanned and much thinner. There were lines in his face
and he had all the appearance of a man who had been through almost
unbearable hardships.

John had no doubt that a long life in the trenches and intense anxiety
had made an equal change in himself. The glass had told him that he
looked more mature, more like a man of thought and experience. Moreover,
he was in the dress of a peasant. After the first painful heartbeat he
awaited von Boehlen with confidence.

"Whence do you come?" asked the colonel of Uhlans--colonel he now was.