For some hours the man and the girl remained in the culvert; meanwhile Winslow explained the Regenerationist movement, which was not as his enemies interpreted, a traitorous party favoring the Japanese, but only a group of thinkers who advocated principles not unlike those which had made the Japanese such a superior race either at peace or at war. As she listened, it seemed to Ethel as if her own dream had come true, for here indeed was a man of her own blood with stamina of physique and mental and moral courage, who professed and practiced all she had found that was good among the people of her enforced adoption and in addition much that, to her with her racial prejudice in his favor, seemed even better than the ways of Japanese. In reply to her questions as to the cause of his outlawry, Winslow explained that he and other leaders of his party had long been at swords' points with the conservatives who were in power and that the administration, taking advantage of the martial frenzy of the war, were persecuting the Regenerationists as supposed traitors. * * * As the sun indicated mid-forenoon the dishevelled editor of the Regenerationist and his newly found follower sauntered forth and took to the turnpike. "We may as well be on the road," he argued. "The sooner the American people get the inside facts of this affair the sooner they will decide to stop it, and it's forty-five miles to the nearest place where I can get in touch with my people." Bareheaded, through the hot sun, they travelled rapidly along the turnpike, keeping a sharp lookout for occasional parties of cavalry and hiding in the fields until they passed. Sometimes they talked of the contrasted ways of life in Japan and in America, and again Winslow wrote hurriedly in his note-book as he walked. About three o'clock in the afternoon they stopped in the shade where a rivulet fell over a small cataract. "Aren't you hungry?" asked Ethel, after they had drunk from the brook. "I don't know. I hadn't thought of it particularly," replied her companion. "Let's see, the last time I ate was in a farmhouse north of Houston. That was eight days ago. When have you last eaten?" "Yesterday morning," replied the girl. "Then you are probably hungrier than I am." With their conversation and the murmur of the waterfall they had failed to detect the approach of two cavalry officers, who, walking their tired mounts, had come up unheeded. "Hey! look at the beauty in breeches!" called one of the approaching men. [Illustration: He rolled a bundle of "Regenerationists" on the wing of the aeroplane below.] "Her for mine," returned the other. "I saw it first--hie!" returned the first, drawing rein. "Give it to me, you hog; you've got one!" "All right, all right--go take it--maybe the bum will object," laughed the first, as the unshaven Winslow advanced in front of the girl. "Run quick," called Winslow to Ethel. "They're too drunk to shoot straight."