"No; that is too near the frontier, and it is too important a station. In your place I should get out at the station before that, at Russ Hersbach."
"Good! There I take a carriage ordered beforehand—I go to Grande Fontaine—I dash into the forest."
"We dash, you mean?"
"Are you coming?"
The two men looked at each other, proud of each other.
"Really," said M. Ulrich, "this astonishes you? It is my trade. Pathfinder that I am, I am going first to reconnoitre the land, then when I shall have done the wood so thoroughly that I can find my way through it even by night, I will tell you if the plan is a good one, and at the hour agreed upon you will find me there. Be careful to dress like a tourist: soft hat, gaiters, not an ounce of baggage."
"Quite so."
M. Ulrich again scrutinised this handsome Jean who was leaving for ever the land of the Oberlés, the Biehlers, and all their ancestors.
All the same, how sad it is, in spite of the joy of the danger.
"Bah!" said Jean, trying to laugh, "I shall see the Rhine at both ends—there where it is free."