"Hello, there!" he hailed, seeing but not recognizing me; "have you
seen any cavalry pass this way?"

"No, I have not," I answered in English.

"Eh? What's that?" not quite believing it was English he had heard.

"I said that no cavalry has passed this way since this afternoon. Are
they looking for you, you jail-bird in perspective?"

He was near enough now. "Well, I be dam'!" he cried. "What the devil
are you doing here, of all places?"

"I was looking for you," said I, locking my arm in his.

"Everybody has been making that their occupation since I left Austria,"
cursing lowly. "I never saw such people."

"What have you been doing this time?"

"Nothing; but I want to do something right away. They have been
hounding me all over the kingdom. What have I done? Nothing,
absolutely nothing. It makes me hot under the collar. These German
blockheads! Do they think to find the Princess Hildegarde by following
me around? I'd give as much as they to find her."

"So you haven't seen anything of her?"

"Not a sign. I came here first, but not a soul was at the castle.
Nobody knows where she is. I came here this time to throw them off the
track, but I failed. I had a close shave this noon. I'll light out
to-morrow. It isn't safe in these parts. It would be of no use to
tell them that I do not know where the princess is. They have
connected me with her as they connect one link of a chain to another.
You can kill a German, but you can't convince him. How long have you
been here?"