"May I ask whither you were journeying when thus caught in the storm ?" he asked in a more civil tone than he had hitherto used.
"Certainly you may.

We were in haste to get on to Gunzenhausen by morning, as a friend of ours has work ready for us there.

We did not expect this storm when we left Eichstadt just before the gates closed, and as the nights are short we thought we would push straight through." "You are woodmen, I see." "Ay, woodmen and charcoal burners." "You are not from this part, at least, judging from your tongue." "Nor, I fancy, are you," Hector replied.
"No," the other said.

"In times like these every one is liable to be driven from home either because the troops of one army or another have plundered and destroyed everything, or perhaps because he has been forced into the ranks." "That is just our case, and you will understand that in times like these, as you say, no one cares to answer questions on the part of strangers.

But we have no particular cause of concealment.