“Going to see a friend, perhaps,” Larry suggested. “They’re her countrymen after all.”
“Here we are at Colonel Wigmore’s,” said Bob, as they neared a dwelling-house set somewhat back in a snow-covered garden. “I’ll wait outside for you.”
Larry hesitated a second then said decidedly, “I thought you wanted to see Elizabeth, Bob. Let’s follow her. Where’s she going, anyhow?”
“Why, I don’t know. But I’m not going to spy on Elizabeth.”
“It’s not spying. If she’s trustworthy she has nothing to hide. You came to Coblenz to see her, and you may not come again for several days. Why miss the chance?”
As Larry finished speaking he ran to the door of the colonel’s house, left his report with the orderly and was back in a minute at Bob’s side and had caught his arm. “We’ll lose sight of her—come on. She can’t be going far.”
Elizabeth had, in fact, already disappeared, but as the two young men walked quickly on they soon caught sight of her again, just as she turned a corner and started down another street, this time in the direction of the city’s outskirts and the river.
Bob was really anxious to see her and Larry’s argument sounded reasonable enough, but he had a feeling that Larry had begun to suspect Elizabeth of something treacherous or underhanded and, incensed at this idea, he protested, as they followed the German woman’s trail:
“Elizabeth has only one desire now, to get back to America. She was pro-Ally before we were in sight of victory. Let’s catch up with her, Larry. She won’t mind, and we can talk with her as we go along.”
But, either Larry was afraid of Bob’s tiring his leg or he did not want to overtake Elizabeth, for he so slightly pressed the pace that they remained a dozen yards behind her when, in ten minutes more, she came out into a tree-bordered lane near the town’s edge, ending in a park-like walk along the Rhine Embankment. Now, in the dead of winter, the open place with its snow-covered ground and bare-branched trees was quite deserted. A cold wind blew from across the Rhine, and the sky looked cloudy and threatening as twilight began to fall.