rote hurriedly.

"Who are you? Where are you going?" he wrote. Then he handed the paper
to Fred. Fred hesitated for a moment. He understood German and could
talk it very well. But he was a little nervous about writing it,
especially in the German script. He could write it, but he was not sure
that he could write it so well that it would seem like the work of a
German. However, he took the chance.

"My name is Gebhardt," he wrote. "I come from Munich, and I am visiting
my uncle and aunt here at Gumbinnen. My uncle sent me to Insterberg and
then I found I could not go back by train. Soldiers have made me turn
around so many times that it has taken me all this time to get here. Why
can I not go to Gumbinnen?"

The officer took the paper and, when he had read it, told the soldier.
They seemed to find Fred's explanation plausible, and his writing had
passed muster.

"Here is a fine mess!" said the lieutenant. "Poor boy! I feel sorry for
one with such an affliction! And is he not between the devil and the
deep blue sea? In Gumbinnen there will be Russian cavalry by
to-morrow--and at Insterberg, I suppose, the first real battle will be
fought!"

Fred caught his breath. He was getting what he wanted now, certainly! If
only he did not betray himself! If the officer would only go on and tell
him a little more! And he did go on, almost as if he were speaking to
himself.

"If his people have any sense, they will have cleared out of Gumbinnen
before this. He knows someone at Insterberg, perhaps, but if it is the
plan to let the Russians come so far without fighting and then strike
while they are there, the population will have been ordered out. And
they have been unloading troop trains at Insterberg, too--so that the
Russians would not find out how many men we had here. Eh--take him up
behind you, Schmidt! We can't abandon him. Perhaps the hospital people
or the cooks can make some use of him."

Fred heard this with a start of dismay. It was decidedly more than he
had bargained for, because now that he had the information he had come
to get, he wanted to get back to the wireless as quickly as possible. It
did him no good to know the German plan, or to have a hint of what it
was, unless he could pass on his knowledge to those who could make some
use of it. But he could not protest when the officer wrote down an
explanation of what was to be done with him, telling him that the road
to Gumbinnen was not safe, but that he would