your house and others. As I looked, two men came up. Criminals, they
looked, and I scarcely breathed. Presently they went away, the men
throwing the sacks over their shoulders, and the woman dragging a
jeweled Icon in her hand.

"I heard footsteps behind me, and there you were coming down the
stairs. You had that package in your hands, and you said, 'Just think,
I nearly forgot my book, Ivan; my great book on the history of Warsaw,
now so nearly finished.'

"You asked where the others were, and you said they had thought it wise
to go in two parties. You said they had told you to be very careful of
something; you couldn't very well remember just what, but it made you
remember your book in your and you hurried to save it. So we hurried
out, and managed to escape the soldiers, and get here and then everyone
cried out, 'Where are the children?'"

"When I went to get my book," said the Professor, with a groan, "they
were sitting quiet as mice by the stove, holding each other's hands.
How could they have gone off?"

The woman looked up. "They could not go," she said. "I myself slid
the great latch on the door; they could not lift it. I have seen
Elinor try to do so. The little stranger was much too small. The
Germans have them, I am sure of it." She bowed her head with fresh
sobs.

"There were no Germans about," said Ivan. "No soldiers of any sort; no
one at all save the three of whom I spoke and they certainly did not
take them away."