"
"Vladimir has all that I brought," said Ivan, breaking in now. "As for
me, I must go again."
"Go? Now? Aren't you going to stay?"
"No! I have much to do. I may be back. But if I return, I shall come
through the cellar--you understand? There are strange movements of
troops in this region that I cannot understand at all. There are far
fewer soldiers here than I thought there would be. I have not been able
to find traces of more than a single corps of Germans--and we had
expected them to have three or four, at the very least, concentrated in
East Prussia as soon as the war broke out. At Augustowo they were even
expecting an attack."
"Then if there are so few as that, won't we advance?"
"Ah, that I don't know! The Austrians, I hear, are very busy. They say
they are moving already in great strength across the border, but that is
far away from here, and it is not our concern. It is for us to keep the
Germans so busy here that they will not be able to crush France before
England can get her army into action. At the beginning it does not
matter so much whether we win victories or not, so long as we can force
the Germans to send many corps here instead of using them to invade
France.
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