follow if he were displeased in any way.

It was still light when Fred left the house. He went out by a side
entrance, reaching the road from the garden. Vladimir had gone down the
hill before him. It was understood that he would manufacture some errand
as an excuse for his appearance in the village. A number of the people
of the village were in the road near the great house; they stared at it
curiously, and with hostile murmurs. They paid no attention to Fred,
however, and this convinced him that his disguise was good. He passed
near them, and he breathed more freely when he had gone by.

At the foot of the hill he turned away from the village. Here he
remembered something that both amused and annoyed him. He had not asked
just where the parsonage was. He knew its location with reference to the
outer portal of the tunnel, to be sure, but he had come to that
underground. However, he remembered where the sun had been when he had
emerged into the open air before, and, after some profitless scouting
about, a passing motorcycle set him on the right track. It set him
thinking, too.

"There are an awful lot of these fellows with dispatches running about,"
he said to himself. "It seems to me that this place is more than a
colonel's headquarters. A colonel has just one regiment under him, and
he certainly wouldn't need so many riders to carry his orders
about--unless he were in command of a detached fort or position, and
Colonel Goldapp isn't. I guess he's there, right enough, but I've an
idea there's someone more important, as well. It might be worth while to
find out just what is going on around here."

But that could wait. For the moment his task was to meet Vladimir and