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Page 26
Nor were Antoine and Suzanne reluctant, and they hurried out to enter
another house which had suffered a similar fate. They passed through a
half-dozen, all torn and shattered by monster shells, and at last they
came to one which had before it a stretch of grass, a pebbled walk, a
fountain, now dry, and benches painted green, under their covering of
snow.
"An inn!" said John. "This is surely Chastel's hotel. Either the de
l'Europe, the Grand or the Hollande, because more than half the hotels
in Europe bear one or the other of those names. Is it not fitting, Miss
Julie, that we should enter and take our rest in an inn?"
She looked at it with sparkling eyes. Again the spirit of adventure was
high within her.
"It seems to be undamaged," she said. "Perhaps we'll find someone
there."
John shook his head.
"No, Miss Julie," he said, "I'm convinced that it's silent and alone.
You'll observe that no smoke is rising from any of its chimneys, and
every window that we can see is dark."
"What do you say, Antoine, and you Suzanne?" asked Julie.
"It is evident, since the inn has no other guests, that we have been
sent here by the Supreme Power, for what purpose I know not," replied
Suzanne, devoutly.
"Then there is no need to delay longer," said John, and, leading the way
up the pebbled walk, he pushed open the central door.
CHAPTER IV
THE HOTEL AT CHASTEL
John was fast finding that in a crowded country like Europe, suddenly
ravaged by war, nothing was more common than abandoned houses. People
were continually fleeing at a moment's warning. He had already made use
of two or three, at a time when they were needed most, and here was
another awaiting him. Before he pushed open the door he had already read
above it, despite the incrustations of snow, the sign, "H�tel de
l'Europe," and he felt intuitively that they were coming into good
quarters. He was so confident of it that his cheerful mood deepened,
turned in fact into joyousness.
As he held open the door he took off his cap, bowed low and said:
"Enter my humble h�tel, Madame la Princesse. Our guests are all too few
now, but I promise you, Your Highness, that you and your entourage shall
have the best the house affords. Behold, the orchestra began the moment
you entered!"
As he spoke the deep thunder of guns came from invisible points along
the long battle-line. The firing of the cannon was far away but the
jarring of the air was distinct in Chastel, and the windows of the
hotel shook in their frames. John and Julie had become so used to it
that it merely heightened their fantastic mood.
"Yours is, in truth, a most welcome hotel," she said, "and I see that we
shall not be annoyed by other guests."
She shook the snow from her hood and cloak and entered, and Picard and
Suzanne, also divesting themselves of snow coverings, followed her. Then
John too went in, and once more closed a door between them and the
storm. He noticed that the great Antoine gave him a glance of strong
approval, and even the somber Suzanne seemed to be thawing.
John was sorry that the European hotels did not have a big lobby after
the American fashion. It would have given them a welcome now, but all
was as usual in the H�tel de l'Europe, Chastel. There was the small
office for the cashier, and the smaller one for the bookkeeper. Near
them was the bureau and upon it lay an open register. Through an open
door beyond, the smoking-room was visible, and from where he stood John
could see French and English illustrated weeklies lying upon the tables.
Nothing had been taken, nothing was in disorder, the hotel was complete,
save that it was as bare as _Crusoe's_ deserted island. But John did not
feel any loneliness. Julie and the two Picards were with him, and the
aspect of the H�tel de l'Europe changed all at once.
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