"Near the cathedral I saw footprints which the falling snow had covered but partially. No, it's not worth while to go back and investigate them. They're under an inch of snow now."
"Why did you think Germans had made them?"
Weber opened his gloved hand and disclosed something metallic, a spike from a German helmet.
"This," he said, "had become loosened and it fell from the cap of some careless fellow. It could have been there only a few minutes, because the snow had not yet covered it. I think a considerable party has got behind the French lines under cover of the storm and has passed through Chastel."
"But they must have gone on. Why would they remain in a ruined town like this?"
"I see no reason for their doing so, unless to seek shelter for a while in some buildings not wholly wrecked, just as you and Mademoiselle Lannes' party have done."
John felt a throb of alarm.
"Has the Hôtel de l'Europe escaped their observation?" he asked.
"I think so. I did not notice any light myself when I approached it. But I had been in Chastel before, and of course knew of the house and its location. I went there at once, hoping that it had escaped destruction, and found my hopes justified. Has Mademoiselle Lannes heard anything from her brother? I did not see his name on the register?"
"He has not come, but the weather has made it impossible. Aeroplanes can't dare such snowstorms as this."