The glass had told him that he looked more mature, more like a man of thought and experience.

Moreover, he was in the dress of a peasant.

After the first painful heartbeat he awaited von Boehlen with confidence.
"Whence do you come ?" asked the colonel of Uhlans--colonel he now was.
John pointed back over his shoulder and then produced his passport, which Colonel von Boehlen, after reading, handed carefully back to him.
"Did you see anything of the French ?" he asked glancing again at John, but without a sign of recognition.
"No, sir," replied John in his new German with a French accent, "but I saw a most unpleasant messenger of theirs." "A messenger?
What kind of a messenger ?" "Long, round and made of steel.

It came over a mountain and then with a loud noise divided itself into many parts near the place where I stood.
One messenger turned itself into a thousand messengers, and they were all messengers of death.

Honored sir, I left that vicinity as soon as I could, and I have been traveling fast, directly away from there, ever since." Von Boehlen laughed, and then his strong jaws closed tighter.