were emptied. The Germans are
wonderful fighters, I believe. We shall have a hard time beating them.
But they fight too much by rule. A German cavalry commander would have
been brave enough to try to do that, but he would not have tried because
he would have known that it was an unsound plan."

"I wish Boris knew that his father was safe," said Fred, a little sadly.
"He has been worried, although he has said nothing."

"Eh--he might have known it! Yes, he got back safely enough. As to
whether he is safe now, that is another matter. He is in the thick of
the fighting around Gumbinnen, and he is not one of those generals who
stay in the rear. He is like Skobeleff. Have you heard of him?"

"He commanded at Plevna, against the Turks?"

"And in a good many other battles! Skobeleff, though he was in command
of the whole army, would insist always on being in the thick of the
fighting himself. He wore his white coat, and he rode a white horse. So
he was always to be seen by his own men and by the enemy. Perhaps he was
wrong, but soldiers will fight better for a general who shares their
perils. Skobeleff used to do impossible things, because he believed that
nothing was impossible that brave men made up their minds to do."

Fred thought of Russian generals in the war with Japan who might have
changed the whole course of that conflict had they had such ideas. But
he said nothing of this. Russian soldiers were mindful of that
disastrous war, he thought. And Fred had an idea that before this far
greater struggle was over, the world would have been forced to forget
the failures of Manchuria. Men who fought as he had seen Russians do
were not going to be beaten again.

Fred was mounted now on a big, rawboned horse that had lost its Uhlan
rider. He was so tired that he was swaying in his saddle, and the
Russian noticed this.

"Keep awake a little longer," he said, cheerily. "We haven't very much
further to go. In half an hour, I think, you can be in a real bed, with
sheets and blankets."

"I don't need anything like that," said Fred, rousing himself and
smiling. "I think I could sleep on a board that was studded with nails!
And I know that they could fight a battle all around me to-night without
waking me up when I once get to sleep."

"I'd like to let you stop here--we are within our lines now--but I know
the staff will want to see you and ask a few questions. And you have
done so much already for Russia that I believe you