THE HAPPY ESCAPE They said very little now.

John drove on through a great happy silence.
All the omens were good, and he believed that they would escape.

Surely, fortune was with them when they had been able to come so far without challenge.

The sun swam over the earth and threw golden beams into the valley.

On their right a swift stream chattered over the stones and further away on their left rose the steep slopes, heavy with forest.
They passed farmers and shepherds who had little time to take notice, as they saw the great machine but a moment, and then it was gone.
John had his mind set on escape by the way of the Adriatic.