"To Prague?"
"I shouldn't go there, sir, if I were you."
"Why not?"
"You'll run into a war."
"What do you mean, Albrecht?"
But Albrecht was already on the way to the kitchen, and he was so long in returning that John dismissed his words as merely the idle talk of a waiter who wished to entertain Herr Simmering's American guests. But when they went to an agency, according to their custom, to buy the railway tickets to Prague they were informed that it would be better for them not to go to the Czech capital. Both were astonished.
"Why shouldn't we go to Prague?" asked Mr. Anson with some indignation. "I've never heard that the Czechs object to the presence of Americans."
"They don't," replied the agent blandly. "You can go to Prague without any trouble, but I don't think you could leave it for a long time."
"And why not. Who would wish to hold us in Prague?"
"Nobody in particular. But there would be no passenger trains during the mobilization."