e?"

"They might do anything, especially if the war seems to be going against
them. They're good enough people, as a rule, but in times like these
there's no telling what will happen."

"I hadn't thought of that. But--yes, you're right, of course. What do
you think we'd better do, Boris?"

"There's nothing to be done at once. We've got to wait a little while,
and let the situation develop. If we tried to get away now, it would be
very risky indeed, I think. You see, between us and the Russian border
there are a lot of German troops. And, even if you went back now toward
Koenigsberg and Berlin, I'm afraid you'd have a hard time. You see, you
haven't any passport. And you're partly Russian. Then you've been here,
and they'd know that. I'm afraid you'd stand a good chance of being
locked up. Tell me just what happened at Virballen."

Fred told him all that he could remember, and Boris frowned.

"Ernst will make a report, you see," he said. "I'm afraid they'll be
looking for you. It makes it look as if you were in a bad hole."

"How do you mean? There's nothing in what happened there to interest
Germany, is there?"

"If things had been normal that night, you'd have found out what there
was, I can tell you! You see the Russian and the German secret police
work together very well. It's all right when they're looking for
nihilists and violent revolutionaries--the sort of people who would
think it a great thing to assassinate either the Kaiser or the Czar.
But the trouble is that if a big man in either Germany or Russia has a
grudge against someone, he can use that whole secret police machinery
against him. That's what Mikail Suvaroff was doing to you."

"But the Germans?"

"He would have seen to it, I suppose, that the secret police on our side
told the Germans here some cock and bull story--enough to induce them to
make it unpleasant for you. That was arranged in advance probably. Right
there on the border, with war starting, those fellows lost their
importance. The soldiers, like Ernst, were in full command. But they'll
be as busy and as active as ever a little way behind the fighting line,
looking for spies. They'll remember what the Russians had to say about
you, and they'll decide that you're a suspicious character, and lock you
up in some fortress till the war's over!"

"Gee! That's a nice prospect! Say, Boris, what am I to do? If I go to
Berlin, I'll be arrested! If I go back to Russia, my uncle will
probabl