CHAPTER XIV
ALTERED PLANS
Fred's horse did for him what he could scarcely have done for himself intime. It reared and threw him, then bolted. Tired already, the suddenappearance of the monstrous ray of light and the roar of the approachingmotor was too much for that horse. Fred was not hurt by the fall. Havinghad no stirrups from which to disengage his feet, he was able to lethimself go. And he had no sooner landed than he was up. For just amoment, he knew he must be plainly visible in the glare of thesearchlight. But he dashed for the side of the road and made his waythrough a hedge and into the field on the other side. There he began torun as fast and as hard as he could.
He had two chances, he thought. One, that he had not been seen at all;the other, that whoever was in the car might think he had passed on theflying horse. If he had been seen, however, he could not hope to escapeby running. He was too tired, for one thing, after the strenuousexperience of the previous night, and for another, he was almost certainto be seen, for after he had traversed a space that was covered withshrubs and young trees, he would be in the open. And a bullet couldtravel faster than he could.
And so, after making his dash, he stopped running and threw himselfdown, facing the road, to watch and to listen. At first he thought hewas safe, for the car roared by. But in a moment his ear caught adifferent note in the sound of the motor, and then the engine stopped.It started again in a moment, but now the headlight was coming towardhim again! The car had been turned around. It was back, undoubtedly, tolook for him. Still he decided not to run, but to stay where he was,though every instinct prompted him to take the chance of flight. That,however, was pure panic, and he fought against the impulse.
The car came along slowly. He was not more than a hundred feet from theroad, and the headlight showed him the progress of the car. Itsblinding light, however, made it impossible for him to see the caritself or its occupants. It gave them the advantage. Finally the carstopped, and he groaned. It had stopped exactly opposite hishiding-place! He had hoped that they would not be able to tell justwhere he had left the road, but in a moment the explanation came to him.He had trampled down the hedge in getting through, of course, and hadleft a trail that a child might have followed.
Then the headlight was switched off, and for a moment he lost the caraltogether. His ears, rather than his eyes, told him that someone wascoming. He heard the breaking down of the hedge, and then footstepsmoving slowly, but coming closer. And in a moment he saw a littlestabbing ray of light that wandered back and forth. Whoever was stalkinghim was evidently not afraid of him.
Suddenly he remembered his pistol, the one he had taken from Schmidt'sholster. He gripped it convulsively. After all, he was not as helplessas he had believed. He waited. Should he risk all now, with a shot--ashot that might warn this stalker off and give him another chance toescape, even though there were others in the car? He drew out thepistol, and cocked it. Then, at the faint sound, a voice called to himout of the darkness.
"Do not fire! It is I--Ivan! Ivan Ivanovitch!"
For a moment Fred thought he was going to collapse, so great was therelief and the slackening of tension. He did laugh out, but caughthimself at once.
"Ivan!" he said. "I thought it was a German officer! It is I, Ivan--FredWaring!"
"I knew it," said Ivan, coming up close. "I saw you for just a second asyour horse reared. It was just a flash of your face, but if I have everseen a face once, I never forget it. And you have the look of a Suvaroffabout you, even though you are different. I would have known you for oneof the breed had I met you anywhere in the world, had no one told mewho you were. And so I turned to find you and follow you."
"But what are you doing here? I thought you were to rejoin our ownarmy?"
"I was pressed into service as a chauffeur. This car was needed near thefront, and there was no one to drive it. I deceived them wholly, with myuniform, and my motorcycle. And so they forced this car upon me! My planwas to use it, instead of my cycle, to get past their lines."
"But you are riding straight to Gumbinnen--and they are near there inforce!"
"No, they have retreated from there. They know that we are too strongfor them, and they do not care to fight."
"Yes, and do you know why? Because they have been bringing troops upsecretly to Insterberg, and are planning to fight a great battle thereon their own grounds! You were wrong, Ivan, in the information yousent."
Wasting no words, he quickly told of what he had learned that evening.And Ivan smote his hands together for he was deeply troubled.
"And I thought I knew all their plans!" he said, savagely. "If the staffhad acted upon my information, we should have marched into a trap!"
"Now I must get to the wireless," said Fred. "That was what I meant todo when you frightened my horse there in the road."
"Come, I will drive you back. It will not take long, and your work ismore important than mine now. It is safe, too. You can be hidden in thecar in case we encounter any Germans. But that is not likely. They arenot as thick in this district as they were forty-eight hours ago."
They made their way together to the car, and Fred laughed.
"I don't think I was ever so scared as when you turned and came back. Itwas worse, in a way, than when they were going to shoot me in theparsonage garden. I'd been so sure I was safe--and then to hear thatbugle call on your car!"
"It is not right for you to run such risks," said Ivan. "I wish you werebehind our lines! You are not even a Russian, and yet you have beennear to death for us."
"Don't you worry about me!" said Fred. "I don't suppose that I wouldhave started this, but when I was pushed into it as I was, I feel likedoing all I can. If the Germans had caught me when Boris hid me in thetunnel, they would have treated me like an enemy, so I thought I mightas well give them a good excuse, since they were going to do it anyhow."
"Here we are," said Ivan. "Even if you were frightened, this may turnout well. You will save some time, and I can take you to the veryopening of the tunnel."
"Well, it's only fair for this car to do me a good turn after the frightit 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, thoughas yet there had been no actual fighting, there was no reason forcautious driving. And five minutes brought them to the parsonage, and soto 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 andforth across the sombre sky. And below the searchlights were hundreds oftiny 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 pushingthe attack--we must have occupied Gumbinnen! The Germans are beingdriven back--and they are bringing up their supports! They must mean tofight here to protect the railway! This place will be the centre of abattle before morning! I shall give up my plan. The only thing thatcounts 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, wemust do without it."
Ivan began running toward the mouth of the tunnel. But Fred, before hefollowed, switched off the lights and ran the car off the side of theroad, so that it was under the wall of the parsonage garden andsheltered, 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 saidto himself. "I have an idea that this place is going to be mightyunpleasant 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 upto the house. Before he could reach the opening, however, he heard othersteps c
oming toward him, and a moment later Boris was heaping reproacheson 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 anylonger. Unless I'm greatly mistaken, this will be used as a target forartillery by morning. It will if Ivan is right."
"He rushed by me just now. He would say nothing except that you werebehind."
"He's at the wireless. Come on! We'll see if he has found out anythingmore."
For ten minutes after they reached the turret, they could get nothingout of Ivan, who was sending hard, with only an occasional pause tolisten to what the other operator sent to him. Then he sat back with asigh of relief.
"We were in time!" he said. "These troops back here are the ones thatwere supposed to be massing behind Liok, to resist the feint we weremaking there. They are too clever, those Germans! They have theirairships to tell them the truth, and their railways to move men swiftlyfrom one side to another. But they have not enough men! We shall beatthem yet. Our attack will stop. See--look here!"
He moved to a table, and with pens and pencils made a rough diagram ofthe position.
"They gave up Gumbinnen without a fight, and formed in a half circlebehind. They had so few men there that it was an invitation to us to tryto outflank them. Our right could sweep out and draw in behind theirleft--so. And then their supporting troops could outflank our right, inturn, and it would be caught between two fires! They have fewer troopsthan we in East Prussia to-day, but ours are separated, while theyrisked all to bring all theirs together at this one point and left thesouth unguarded from Mlawa to Liok! Oh, it was daring--Napoleon mighthave planned that!"
"I see," said Fred. "Then when they had won here, they could have usedtheir railway to move troops southward?"
"Exactly so! A hundred and fifty thousand men all together can beat ahundred thousand, if all else is equal. But one army of a hundredthousand can beat two of seventy-five thousand apiece, meeting them atdifferent times. So our attack will stop. We shall leave a coveringforce here at Gumbinnen--or perhaps all our troops here will stay, buton the defensive, while others are rushed up from Grodno to outflankthem, not on their right, as they hoped, but on their extreme left!"
He was silent for a moment.
"I need one man here," he said. "One man, to keep the engine running forthe dynamo. Everyone else must leave this house. You, Boris Petrovitch,most of all--you and your cousin. I am responsible to your father foryour safety for it is through my fault that the plans were badly made."
"But why must you stay, Ivan?" asked Boris.
"I must stay until I am ordered away," said Ivan. "But it will not besafe here after daylight--perhaps there will be trouble even beforethat. Yes, I think it will be very soon now."
"Well, I think I shall stay," said Fred.
"No," said Ivan. "Listen! If you go now, quickly, you can get away inthe car. Here is the road you must follow." He took a map and pointed."See--swing west first, and then south--far south. So you will be safefrom the Germans, for they have abandoned that section except for therailway from Insterberg to Liok. That is guarded, but thinly. In the carare two long coats such as the German officers wear, and two helmets.They are under the rear seat. Put those on, and you will pass most oftheir sentries, if you should encounter them."
"If he says we must go, we must do it," said Boris, quickly. "I shouldlike to stay, too, Fred, but he is right. We can do no good here, and ifyou are caught it will be very bad. It would not matter with me, forthey would only treat me as a prisoner."
Fred was still unwilling. He had not Boris's Russian readiness to acceptwhatever came, but there was something about Ivan that convinced himthat argument would be useless.
"Go now," said Ivan, "and God go with you! I will see to it thatVladimir and the others follow."
And so Fred went through the tunnel again, this time with Boris. Hewondered if he would ever see this place again.