anticipate an attack, he could guess that the place would
be well guarded. And yet he was here because he hoped that he would be
able, after seeing the parsonage, to devise some plan of getting Boris
away.

However, that was something to be attempted later, if at all. His chief
concern now was for the soldier he had thrown. And now he made his way
back, and found to his dismay that the man was beginning to recover his
senses. As Fred came back he stretched, yawned, and sat up, with the
most ludicrous mixture of fright and wonder in his eyes. Fred had his
gun, and at the sight of that the soldier spoke indignantly.

"Give me back my gun!" he said, testily. "It is against the rules for
anyone to touch my gun. If you let the corporal catch you with that,
there'll be trouble. I promise you!"

Fred had hard work to control his features. He wondered if the man was
really a little simple-minded, or if the effects of his fall still
confused him. He finally decided that both theories were right. For a
moment he hesitated, wondering what to do. He wanted to get back into
the passageway, and he did not want the German to see him doing it. As
he thought, he studied the entrance attentively. And he was startled
suddenly to find that he could not see it! Had something happened? Had
the door closed automatically? If that were so, he was in a nice fix,
and he would soon join Boris as a prisoner.

But then he realized that the seeming disappearance of the opening was
simply the result of clever screening, by means of bushes. It had
deceived him for the moment. He saw that the door was so contrived that
anyone emerging from it would seem to anyone even a few feet away, to be
simply coming out from behind a bush. And then he got his great idea, an
idea that made him turn his head, so that the soldier would not see the
grin he could not suppress.

"Here, give me that gun!" said the soldier, again. He was more impatient
than before, and his tone was one of anger. He struggled to his feet,
too, and stood, swaying uncertainly, still weak and very dizzy as the
result of his fall.

"Beware!"

The word came in a sepulchral, heavy voice from directly behind the
soldier. He swung around, greatly puzzled.

"Who's there?" he called, sharply.

"I am everywhere!" said the same voice.

But now it came from the very ground at his feet.

And then the voice spoke, swinging around, as the soldier turned, like a
dancing dervish, trying always