"Then I should think they wouldn"t agree," said Fred, heartily. "Mikail is like the Russians one reads about, dark and mysterious, and always sending people to Siberia and that sort of thing."
"It isn"t as bad as that, of course," said Boris, with a laugh. "Russia isn"t like other countries, but we"re not such barbarians as some people try to make out. Still, of course, there are a lot of things that ought to be changed. Russia has been apart from the rest of the world because she"s so big and independent. That"s why there are two parties, the conservatives and the liberals. My father is all for the Czar, but he wants the Czar to govern through the men the people elect to the Duma.
After this war--well, we shall see! There will be many changes, I think.
You see, this time it is all Russia that fights. Against j.a.pan we were not united. It is the Russian people who have made this war."
"I only knew there was danger of war the night it began," said Fred. "I suppose it is on account of Servia, though?"
"Yes. That started it. They are Slavs, like ourselves. It is as it was when we fought Turkey nearly forty years ago. The Turks were murdering Slavs in the Balkans, and all our people called on the Czar to fight.
This time we could not let Austria bully a nation that is almost like a little brother to Russia."
"I can understand that," said Fred. "I suppose there"s enough of the Slav in me, from my mother, to make me feel like that, too."
"Even after the way Mikail treated you? Tell me about that. Why did he behave so, though I suppose you may not know?"
"I don"t, really. My father is dead, you know. I and my mother are alone. She has always loved Russia, though she calls herself an American, and is one, and has always made me understand that I am an American, before all. But she has taught me to love Russia, too. And she has always told me that there were estates in Russia that belonged to her, and would belong to me. She and my father were angry and hurt because of the way her family treated them, but she said that some time she wanted me to take possession of the estate, and to live for a little time each year in Russia. She said that the peasants on the place would be better off if I did that."
"Yes," Boris nodded. "That is what those who criticise us do not always remember. Russian n.o.bles do look after their peasants. The peasants in Russia have not had the advantages of the poor in other countries. They are like children still. My father is a father to all the people on our estate. When they are sick, he sees that they are cared for. If there are bad crops, he gives them food and money. We must all do such things."
"That"s what she told me. Well, she wrote letters and she could get no answers. So she decided to come herself. But she was taken ill. Not seriously, but ill enough so that the doctor did not want her to travel.
And that was why I came. I went to my uncle, because he was in charge of her affairs. And then, though he was kind enough when I first saw him, and promised to help me, I was arrested. All my papers were taken away, and all my money. And he brought me to Virballen, after I had been kept in a sort of prison for three or four weeks. There I was taken off the train for Berlin and put across the border, without any money or pa.s.sports. The German lieutenant himself was going to send me to Berlin, but then the news came that war had been declared, and he advised me to walk. I was held up at the first village I came to, and I got as far as this. You saw what happened here in this little village."
"That is very, very strange," said Boris, vastly puzzled. "Do you know what charge was made against you?"
"No! Some tommyrot about a conspiracy against the Czar. But just what it was I was never told. I am forbidden to re-enter Russia."
"I don"t understand at all," said Boris. "Mikail can"t want to keep your mother"s property for himself. He is a very rich man--by far the richest of the family, though none of the Suvaroffs are poor. And I know about your mother"s lands, because they are next to our own."
"The money that comes from them has always been sent to her," said Fred.
"That was what I was thinking of, too. There was no trouble, you see, until it seemed that we might want to live on the place from time to time."
"Yes. My father has had something to do with the arrangements. Your mother is well off, even without her own property, isn"t she?"
"Yes. My father was not a millionaire, but he always had plenty,"
answered Fred, very frankly.
"Mikail did hate the idea of her marriage," said Boris, reflectively. "I could understand this better if I thought that he was trying to keep her inheritance from her to show his dislike. But it cannot be that. There is something very mysterious. I wish my father were here! I think perhaps he would understand."
"Where is he, Boris?"
"With the army by this time! He did not believe there would be war, to the very last. That is the only reason I am still here. But he himself was called back as soon as things began to look serious. I stayed here with my tutor but he is gone now. He is a German, and has been called out. It is fortunate that my father had gone, because the Germans would have held him, of course, if he had been here. They have come here three or four times to look for him, but now I think they have decided that we have told the truth, and that he is not here."
"How did you happen to come to my aid in such a fashion? I was beginning to think that I was in serious danger down there."
"You were, Fred! They thought you were an English spy. And they hate the English worse than they do us, I think. They have thought that the English should be on their side. When they found it could not be so, they thought that at least England would be afraid to fight."
"I see that. But you--what brought you out?"
"I know those people. And when I saw that they were attacking someone, it seemed to me that I couldn"t just stand by and look on. It was sure to be someone on my own side that they were treating so--the cowards!
But a mob is always cowardly. And, of course, I knew that I could manage easily with the automobile. They were sure to scatter when they saw it coming, because they are afraid of motors, anyway."
"Well, you can belittle it as much as you like, but you certainly saved me from an awfully nasty situation. And you didn"t know who I was, either!"
"No, I didn"t, of course. But it makes me feel all the better to find out it was you, Fred. Still you know we"re not out of the woods yet."
"We"re all right here, aren"t we?"
"I don"t know. I think the Russians will be in East Prussia, and well in, before very long. If that happens and the German army is pushed back of this line, these people will be entirely out of control, except if Russian troops happen to come to this particular spot--and there"s no especial reason why they should."
"You mean they might attack the house?"
"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 pa.s.sport. 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 a.s.sa.s.sinate 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 c.o.c.k 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 probably have me boiled in oil or something! If I stay here, your peasant friends down below will lynch me! I"m beginning to think I"m not popular around here!"
Boris laughed, but his eyes were grave.
"It"s a ridiculous situation," he said. "I don"t really know what to say. I don"t believe you need to fear Mikail very much. He has a good deal to think of by this time, because, now that the war has come, he won"t have time for intrigue. He"s a first-cla.s.s soldier. He made a splendid record in the war with j.a.pan--and not many of our generals did, you know. But I tell you what I think we"d better do. Wait here until we hear from my father. He will know. And when he learns that you are here, he will be able to protect you in some fashion."
"But how are you going to hear from him here?"
"That"s a secret--yet! But there"s a way, never fear. A way that the Germans don"t suspect, and won"t be able to interfere with. Tell me, Fred. If it is safe for you to go back into Russia, will you stand by me? Or would you rather take your chance of going home through Germany?
I"m a Boy Scout, and we have known for a long time some of the work we would have to do if war came."
"I"m with Russia, even if America stays out," said Fred, with instant decision. "Blood"s thicker than water--you know the old saying. And I am half a Russian. If there"s any way that I can help, you can count me in.
I"m a Boy Scout, too, when it comes to that. I didn"t know there were any in Russia, though."
"There are. They"re all over Europe now, you know. Well, we"ll see.
What"s this?"
A servant had entered.