f the tunnel."

"Well, it's only fair for this car to do me a good turn after the fright
it gave me," said Fred.

Ivan drove swiftly when they started again. On that deserted road,
through a country that had been blasted by the approach of war, though
as yet there had been no actual fighting, there was no reason for
cautious driving. And five minutes brought them to the parsonage, and so
to a point as close to the opening of the tunnel as the car could go.
As the motor stopped Ivan swore in surprise.

"Look!" he said.

To the west there were a dozen darting searchlights winking back and
forth across the sombre sky. And below the searchlights were hundreds of
tiny points of fire.

"They're advancing!" he cried. "And listen!"

From the east there came a dull sound that rose presently to a steady,
loud roar.

"Everything has changed!" cried Ivan, his face white. "We are pushing
the attack--we must have occupied Gumbinnen! The Germans are being
driven back--and they are bringing up their supports! They must mean to
fight here to protect the railway! This place will be the centre of a
battle before morning! I shall give up my plan. The only thing that
counts now is to get word to the staff of what is going on back here!
Come!"

"What about the car?"

"If it is still here after we have sent word, good! If it is not, we
must do without it."

Ivan began running toward the mouth of the tunnel. But Fred, before he
followed, switched off the lights and ran the car off the side of the
road, so that it was under the wall of the parsonage garden and
sheltered, to a certain extent, by the heavy foliage of a large tree,
whose branches overhung the wall.

"I'd like to think that that car was where we could get at it," he said
to himself. "I have an idea that this place is going to be mighty
unpleasant before long."

Then he followed Ivan. The Russian had already entered the tunnel. Fred,
when he followed him, heard him running up the long passage that led up
to the house. Before he could reach the opening, however, he heard other
steps coming toward him, and a moment later Boris was heaping reproaches
on him.

"I thought they had caught you!" he cried. "I saw them chasing someone,
and it looked like you. In fact, I was sure it was you at first sight."

"It was," said Fred, grimly. "I'll tell you about that later, Boris!
You'd better get everyone out of this place. We can't stay here any
longer. Unless I'm greatly mis