"We don't know ourselves," said the Suwalki operator. "Things are moving
very fast, but absolutely no news is being given out. I know that our
cavalry--Cossacks, chiefly--have crossed the border at half a dozen
different points. The Germans and the Austrians have invaded Poland, and
our troops have all been withdrawn from that region. The concentration
there is going on at Brest-Litovsky, and behind the line of Warsaw-Novo
Georgevsk. But here there are a good many troops. There may be Cossacks
within a few miles of you. They are raiding. Here it is said that our
first move will be to try to cut the German railways."

That was all he could find out. He arranged for word of Boris's seizure
to be sent to his father, and then closed his circuit and went below, in
search of old Vladimir.

By now it was afternoon, and Fred began to think that if Boris had been
coming back that day he would have arrived already. Plainly, it seemed
to him, Colonel Goldapp must have decided to retain him as a prisoner.
He wanted to get down near the parsonage again, but he was afraid to
venture out by the secret passage. He didn't know how thoroughly he had
frightened the soldier who had so nearly caught him. If the man had
recovered his wits and decided that it was no ghost, but a very
substantial and real person who had bowled him over, there would
doubtless be a guard in the hollow, by the outer entrance of the tunnel.
And, in any case, it was too risky to seek egress by that means again in
broad daylight.

"Vladimir," he said, when he found the old servant, "I want you to make
me look like a German, if you can. Disguise me, so that I may go down
toward the village safely. Is it possible?"