Part 32 (2/2)

”Go on,” urged von Senborn impatiently. ”I thought you spoke Russian like a native.”

”It is hastily written,” explained the other. ”And therefore indistinct. But I think I have the meaning now.”

”Well, for h.e.l.l's sake let me have it, too.”

”You cannot take me alive,” he read in his hard North German. ”I have chosen how I shall die. When I have written this I mean to signal to my friends to sh.e.l.l the tower, before your men come back to mine it. And we, too, shall return, driving you to the very streets of Berlin. And Europe's wrongs shall be avenged. We Russians are slow; but neither stupid nor discouraged, as you pretend.” He stopped and looked up.

”That all?” asked von Senborn.

”All.” He returned the paper to his superior.

”_Ja, ja,_” said a voice. ”I see it now. He had himself bricked up in that tower, to signal and cover the retreat. He was no coward.”

n.o.body spoke. The incident had impressed them all. The man who gets himself bricked up with enough food to last till he is found out, is a hero. Von Senborn, having his head seen to by a surgeon, talked it over. Ian kept in the shadow, not wanting to be seen. Dazed though he felt from the last sh.e.l.l, he knew that this discovery would spring back upon him and his dear ones.

”How did he signal?” the surgeon asked.

”G.o.d knows.”

”That Polish Count knew of this,” murmured the haggard lieutenant, little thinking Ian was within earshot.

”Yes,” said von Senborn savagely. ”I'll swear to that. But I'll be even with him. Be quick, Surgeon, there's work to do yet.”

”Serve him right to shoot him after all,” put in the surgeon. Von Senborn laughed angrily.

”Shooting's too good.” He lowered his voice. Strain his ears as he might, Ian only caught two words. But they were enough. He waited to hear no more.

He ran as fast as sore legs would carry him up to the house. Outside, not a soul. All the women and children, besides several men, were in the cellars.

”Get out at once,” he shouted. ”Run as hard as you can, along the Warsaw road.”

”What is the matter?” asked the Countess.

”A Russian bricked up in the church tower. They are coming to blow us up, shutting you in first. Run as far from the house as possible.”

When he saw them on their way he left them, then ran for an ax and made for the sacristy. There was no guard now, all the Germans being down by the church and village. He soon had the door in, to find Father Constantine walking up and down, saying his prayers. Ian hastily said what had happened and urged him to join the others on the Warsaw road.

But the old man was in no hurry.

”They may not do it,” he said. ”I expect they'll go to sleep and wake up in a better mood.”

”If you don't go I'll carry you,” cried the squire angrily. ”And that will prevent me warning the people hanging about.”

Then he dragged his chaplain from the room. But the priest insisted on taking a little malachite crucifix which hung over the cupboard. It was the only thing they saved out of all Ruvno's beautiful things.

Then Ian warned as many of the peasants as he could find, though the sh.e.l.ling had already frightened most of them out of the village and on to the road. Baranski, whom he met, helped him.

Terrible was the confusion and alarm that followed, the calling of mothers to children, the cries of frightened babies, the curses of old men. Every second of that awful night was burnt in Ian's brain; he did not forget it whilst he lived. In quite a short time the Warsaw road was filled with panic-stricken peasants. Some of them had s.n.a.t.c.hed up a table, a chair, a kettle or a pillow. Those who had any left panted along with a sack of potatoes or buckwheat. A few were fortunate enough to possess a horse. He tried to get a couple of his--farm horses were all he had left--but the Germans were around the yard before he could get back. So quick were they that he had not time to take a thing for the women. The peasants, being nearer the road, were more fortunate in this way. Even as Ian left the village he could see soldiers hovering round the house, evidently shutting the doors, lest their victims escape! A wounded Prussian cursed him and Baranski as they hustled some children on to the highway.

<script>