Nor did
he doubt for a moment that Julie knew he was following them. She had
recognized him and their eyes had spoken in the language of
understanding to each other. It was easy enough to re-create for
himself, almost as vivid as reality, her beautiful face with the golden
hair showing under the edges of the hood, and the startled look of the
dark blue eyes when they first met his own. Relief and joy had been in
that look too. He could read it.
John had learned in Munich the location of Auersperg's principal castle.
It was Zillenstein in a spur of the Eastern Alps just inside Austria,
where for centuries the Auerspergs had held great state, as princes of
the Holy Roman Empire. Now when they were princes of both the German and
the Austro-Hungarian empires with their greater fealty for the former,
they often went there nevertheless, and John's information in Munich
made him quite sure that the prince had gone directly toward the
ancient stronghold.
Auersperg could cover the distance quickly in his powerful automobiles,
but it would take John a long time on foot, helped by an occasional ride
in a peasant's cart. Nevertheless he hung on with patience and
pertinacity. He was but a single man on a quest in the heart of Germany,
but in the old days men had gone alone through a world of dangers to the
Holy Sepulchre and had returned.
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