the Provincial of the German Jesuits. Of course they were going to
follow him and bring him back. But night had come on before their
inquiries and deliberations were finished. They must wait till the
next day.

Accordingly, bright and early the following morning, all three, with
one of the Kostkas' servants, drove out in a carriage over the
Augsburg road. They had four good horses and they told their
coachman not to spare the whip. They came to the inn where
Stanislaus had spent the night. They questioned the landlord.

"Have you seen a boy of seventeen, a Polish noble, pass westward
along this road yesterday or today?"

But the landlord was shrewd, and though the whole matter was beyond
him, he fancied somehow that these eager folk were no great friends
of the boy who had lodged with him. And as he trusted that boy and
could scarcely help being loyal to him, he shrugged his shoulders
and answered:

"How should I know? So many travel this road."

Then Bilinski described Stanislaus and his doublet of velvet and
hose of silk and jeweled dagger. But at that the landlord shook his
head in denial.

"I have seen no such person as your graces describe," he said.

Bilinski called out to the coachman: