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 risks more gradually. To be taken to "headquarters"—das Hauptquartier—tomorrow! And, though Gerry had warned her, and she had said that she had recognized and accepted every sort of danger, still she had not reckoned upon such a companion as this man for her journey.

"Ha, Luise! What is the matter?"

"When do we start, Herr Baron?"

"The sooner the better; surely you are ready?"

"Surely; I was thinking—" she groped for excuse and could think of nothing better than, "What way do we go?"

"By Basel and Freiburg."

"What time, if you please, Herr Baron?"

"At eight o'clock the train is."

"I would like to return now to the hotel, then."

He complied and, conversing on ordinary topics in English, they reentered the town.

She had no arrangements to make. Wessels was to see to all necessary details. She could pack her traveling bags in a few minutes; and she dared not write to anyone of the matters now upon her mind. She desired to return to the hotel only to be alone; and, as soon as she had parted from Wessels, she shut herself in her room.

Long ago—a period passed in incalculable terms of time—she had determined, locked alone in a room, to undertake proceeding into Germany. Her purpose from the first, and her promise to the soul of Cynthia Gail—the vindication which she had whispered to strengthen herself when she was writing to Cynthia's parents, and George Byrne, and when she was receiving their letters,