The din was constant. For hours, after he had been taken to
a cell in the central police station, he lay awake and listened. Guns
rumbled through the streets, motor cars chugged all through the night.
He was aroused in the morning by sounds of frantic, steady cheering, and
when the guard brought him his breakfast, he asked what that meant. The
man's eyes lighted up.
"The Little Father has come to be with his soldiers!" he said. "He has
come to give us his blessing and bid us fight for him and Holy Russia!
How can we lose now?"
"The Czar himself?" said Fred. He smiled. He had hoped, when he left
America, to see the Czar before his return. There was small chance of
that now, even though they were in the same town.
The Russians delayed as little as had the Germans in bringing him to
trial. And here in Grodno there was even less ceremony than there had
been in the dining-room of the East Prussian parsonage.
A young officer was assigned to defend him, but he took the task as a
joke.
"You'll be condemned, of course," he said. "Prince Mikail knows you are
a spy. I think you're very lucky that he didn't hang you outside of his
own headquarters! Better plead guilty.
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