and you've got to take it quickly."
The idea of abandoning a friend, and much more one who had come to mean
so much to him as did Boris, seemed terrible to Fred. And yet it was
impossible for him to refute Boris's argument. His cousin was right.
And now he could hear the voices of approaching men. Naturally, if the
Germans on the culvert thought that a car containing two German officers
had been wrecked, they would come to the rescue. There was no time to be
lost.
"I suppose you're right, Boris," he said, with a groan. "But it's the
hardest thing I've ever had to do! But it is so. It would make it worse
for you if I stayed. That's the only reason I'll go, though! You believe
that, don't you?"
"Of course I do!" said Boris. "Haven't you proved what sort you are,
when you risked your life to try to help me to get away at the
parsonage? Go! Hurry! Get this coat and helmet off me!"
So Fred set to work. He had to move Boris to get the coat off, and the
Russian groaned with the pain of his broken leg. Fred dared not wait,
now that he had made up his mind to fly, even to see the extent of the
injury, much less to apply first aid. Had there been time, he might have
made Boris comfortable, for, like all well trained Boy Scouts, he
understood the elementary principles of bandaging and had made more than
one temporary setting in splints for broken bones. But he knew that the
Germans would be there in a minute or two, and he had no reason to
suppose that they would lack common humanity. They would care for Boris.
Probably they had a surgeon back at the culvert, or fairly near at hand,
at any rate.
"Get off the road," said Boris, gritting his teeth. "My head is
swimming, and I'm afraid I'm going to faint or do some such foolish
thing! But don't stay in the road. They're sure to go along, looking for
you."
Fred had reasoned that out for himself. And now, when he had rolled up
Boris's coat and helmet into a bundle, he leaped a narrow ditch and
plunged into a thick mass of bushes. He did not know the country here,
and had no notion of what sort of cover he might find. But luck was with
him though for a moment he thought he had stumbled into a disastrous
predicament. The ground gave way beneath him suddenly and he felt
himself falling. He relaxed instinctively, and came down on hands and
knees on a mass of leaves and twigs. He had fallen into a sort of
shallow pit, but deep enough to shelter him. It seemed to him to be lik
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