I slipped away as soon as the
snow melted sufficiently, and was the first from the outside world to
reach the lodge. The absence of the limousine, the tire tracks leading
toward Tellnitz and other evidence at the lodge showed without doubt
that my conclusions were right."
"And you followed immediately?"
"Without delay. I reached Tellnitz, where you stopped, obtained this
light machine and came on at speed. It will be my pleasure to help as
much as I can you and the sister of the great Philip Lannes, the first
aviator of France."
"You left France after we did, Monsieur Weber," said Julie. "Did you
hear anything of Philip?"
"That he had recovered fully of his wound, Mademoiselle, and that he and
the _Arrow_ were once more in the service of his country. He knows of
your abduction by Prince Karl of Auersperg. A friend, an aviator,
Delaunois, furnished him with many facts, and I cannot doubt that he
will come over Austria in the _Arrow_ to seek your rescue."
The eyes of Julie, John and Suzanne, as with one impulse, turned upward.
It seemed to John, for a moment or two, that his vivid imagination could
fairly create the slender and graceful shape of Philip's aeroplane,
outlined against the sky. But the heavens were flawless, a pure,
unbroken blue, without speck or stain, and he suppressed a little sigh
of disappointment.
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