THE REFUGE
There was no time to debate. Dick heard the policemen at the door and he
knew that it would not delay them for more than a minute, at best. The
mysterious boy was already half way out of the window. Dick rushed over,
and saw him land in a flower bed below. A moment more, and he was beside
him.
"Follow me," said the stranger. "Can you run fast?"
"Yes, I can," said Dick, speaking in Servian. He wanted to surprise this
boy who had surprised him so thoroughly, and he succeeded. But there was
no time for questions. He suited the action to the word now, and they
ran, the stranger in the lead. But even as they ran, Dick's mind was
active. He had answered in Servian because he had suddenly guessed part
of the mystery. The other's cry, "I am a spy!" had given him a clue. He
concluded that this boy must be a Servian.
And his start of surprise when he had heard the words in that language,
which very few foreigners can speak, had convinced Dick that he had made
the right guess. He felt better after that. Somehow hitherto he had not
been able to divest himself of an uncomfortable suspicion that this
strange boy might be in some fashion acting against him and in the
interests of Mike Hallo. Yet his manner contradicted that idea; he was
frank and open in his appearance. And, finally, there was no need for
Dick to feel that he was making any serious mistake in following him
now.
It was certain that the police _were_ working for Hallo, whether they
knew it or not, and it was equally certain that had he not dropped from
the window he would now be in their hands, and perhaps on his way to
Buda-Pesth. As it was, he was free for the moment at least.
Hot as was their pace, Dick's training as a scout enabled him to keep
track of their direction, roughly at least, and he knew that they were
going toward the river. Had he been a boy of the type too often seen
nowadays, born and brought up in a city, he would have been hopelessly
lost within a minute of the start, for his guide twisted and turned in a
bewildering fashion, plainly with the idea of making pursuit more
difficult for the police. At last the pace slackened, and the Servian
turned into a narrow alley. Dick followed, and they dropped into a
cellar. This was a damp, dark, filthy place, but they were not to stay
there. The Servian pressed a certain spot on what seemed to be a
perfectly blank wall, and it gave. Dick saw that there was a secret
panel, which swung around now and gave them entrance to a second cellar
of a very different aspect, as he saw when his companion struck a match.
This room, for a room it really was, was lined with match board, and
there was some sort of ventilation, for the air was fresh and pure, and,
moreover, in constant motion. The Servian lighted a lamp that hung from
a bracket on the wall, and then, as the light spread, Dick could see
what manner of refuge it was that they had reached.
Evidently it was intended for frequent use. There were two or three
chairs, a table, and a big, comfortable looking couch, covered with rugs
and cushions. Books were on the table, and on a shelf that ran around
two sides of the room, and on the table, too, were pens, ink and paper
in abundance.
"Now we are safe!" said the Servian. "This place has been used for two
or three years, and the police seem never to have suspected its
existence. I suppose you are curious?"
"I certainly am!" said Dick. "Who are you? And what are you doing here?
And--but go ahead! You'll tell me what you like, I suppose."
"My name is Stepan Dushan," said the other, with a laugh. "That is a
good Servian name, as I suppose you know. But you must have guessed
before that I am Servian, or you would not have spoken to me in my own
language. How is it that you, an American, over here for the first time,
speak our language so well?"
"How is it that you know so much about me?" countered Dick, really
amazed. "I never saw you until this morning, in Hallo's place."
"Nor I you," said Stepan. "But it was my business to know all about
everything that Hallo was doing. He is a very important man just now,
and especially for us Servians. He has a great deal to do with the
government here. He will supply many of the things the Austrian soldiers
will need in the war, and there was a chance that by working for him I
might be able to gain a great deal of valuable information. There are so
few of us Servians, you see, and especially after the wars, that boys
have to do the work of men."
"I see," said Dick, vaguely, though he was a long way from a clear
understanding yet.
"That was why I listened to what you had to say to Hallo," the Servian
went on. "Anything might be important, you see. But I soon understood
that this was a different matter. And then I remembered things I had
heard, or had just happened to stumble on, since I had been in his
office, and then I knew all about you, and how he had cheated your
family--the scoundrel!"
"You do know a lot!" said Dick. He was beginning to be tremendously
impressed by this Servian lad, no older than himself, who nevertheless
was serving his country in such a dangerous and delicate capacity.
"Oh, I just jumped at the chance of putting a spoke in Hallo's wheel,"
said Dushan. "It hasn't been the easiest thing in the world working for
him, obeying his orders, I can tell you. He treats those who work for
him like a dog. You would think he was a noble, instead of a shrewd
peasant who has made money."
He laughed.
"I ought not to talk like that," he said. "In Servia we are all
democrats, and a peasant is as good as the next man. But still it was
hard with this Magyar swine! My father--you know my father is in our
army, a general of brigade. I shall be in the army, too, when I am old
enough, if there is to be more war after this. And in the meantime I do
what I can. I am a Boy Scout."
"A scout? So am I!" exclaimed Dick.
They had found a common tie when Stepan Dushan said that, and for a
little time they forgot everything in a discussion of scouting and of
the differences between the Servian and American systems. They soon
agreed that, though there had to be many differences, the fundamental
idea was the same, and that the original impulse of the Boy Scout
movement had spread because there must be, after all, a great deal in
common between all boys everywhere.
"There are scouts here in Hungary. In Buda-Pesth there are several
troops, you know," said the Servian.
"I saw them there," Dick nodded. "And in Germany, too, but the German
scouts are rather different. I say, this is splendid, Steve! You don't
mind my making it Steve, do you, instead of Stepan? That sounds so
strange to me."
"I don't mind a bit," said the Servian. "Well, I got you away from the
police, but I'm puzzled as to what to do for you next. We can't stay
here very long, because some of the men who are doing the really
dangerous work may want to use this place any minute, and I don't think
they'd like it if we stayed. I suppose I could manage to get you out of
Semlin, but you'd have to go to Buda-Pesth, and you want to stay within
reach of Hallo, don't you?"
Dick's jaws snapped together.
"I certainly do," he said, doggedly. "I hate to give a thing up when
I've once started to try to do it, don't you?"
"Ye-es. I'm trying to think, Dick. There is a way, of course. I can
smuggle you over to Belgrade when it gets dark. But if you once get into
Servia just now, there's no knowing when you'll get out again. When the
fighting starts--and it's going to start soon, perhaps to-night, perhaps
to-morrow--things are going to move quickly. We haven't wanted war, we
Servians. We've had enough to last us a lifetime since we attacked
Turkey. But we're ready for it."
Dick said nothing. It seemed plain that his new found friend was still
pondering an idea.
"You've no idea how I hate that man Hallo!" he burst out in a minute.
"Sometime, if we are to be together, I'll tell you why. The rest of the
reasons, that is. But I'd give anything to help you beat him, Dick, and
I do think there's a way. Only it will be risky. You'd have to come with
me to Belgrade. And you'd have to stay with me and probably help Servia,
and I don't suppose an American, who's got nothing to do with our
troubles, would want to do that?"
"I'd do pretty nearly anything rather than go home beaten," said Dick,
grimly. "And there's another thing, too, Steve. Do you think there's a
chance that this may mean a European war, with Germany and France and
Russia mixed up in it? That's what Mr. Denniston, the American consul
here, seems to think."
"Yes, I'm afraid it will mean just that," said Dushan, gravely. "Russia
will help us if Austria attacks us. We know that already. Then Germany
must help Austria and France must help Russia, and England must help
them both. And there will be the great war--the war Austria threatened
us with when she took away Albania, that thousands of our Servians had
died to win for the fatherland! We gave way then, just as we gave way
when she enslaved millions of Serbs in Bosnia, so that there might be
peace in Europe. But this time Austria has gone too far, when she tries
to take away the independence our fathers bought from the Turks with
their blood! Servia cannot give way again. And Russia will not let her
be wiped out by Austria."
"Then I'll stay here," said Dick, cheerfully. "Because there isn't a
chance for me to get home. I haven't got money enough. I got here by
working my way, and in time of war there'd be no chance for me to do
that."
"There is something in that," said Stepan. But he seemed doubtful still.
"I don't want you to come in without knowing what there is to be
risked," he went on. "It is going to be dangerous, hard work. But I
really think that at the end there will be a chance for you to get what
you came for. I think that I can show you a way to beat Hallo and force
him to make restitution. Don't ask me why I think so, because I'm not
ready to tell you yet. And it might spoil everything if I told you too
soon."
"You've done so much for me now that there's no reason why you should do
more," said Dick. "And as for helping Servia, why shouldn't I? When my
own country was little and poor, and fighting for its life against
England, we got help from all sorts of people who believed in freedom
and hated tyranny. So I don't see any reason why an American scout
shouldn't do anything that's in his power for Servia."
They struck hands then.
"We must wait until dark," said Stepan. "Until it is really dark, full
night. Then it will be very easy to get over the river, unless things
have changed greatly since last night. I am glad you are going to stay,
Dick. We are in the right, and we are going to win. There's no other
way."
"I think so, too," said Dick. "Steve, there's just one thing. I know
that Austria has treated Servia badly, and that she should not have
annexed lands in which there were so many Serbs. But that murder in
Serajevo was an awful thing--"
"It was frightful!" declared Stepan, passionately. "Every true Servian
will tell you the same thing! But it is a wicked Austrian lie to say
that Servia had anything to do with it! It was Austrian subjects who
were, perhaps, Serbs in blood, who planned it. We Servians did all we
could. Our government learned that trouble was brewing, and our minister
in Vienna begged the Archduke Franz Ferdinand to stay away or at least
to take especial precautions. The Serbs in Bosnia hated him because they
thought he was the man who planned the annexation. But to say that the
Servian government knew what was planned is to say what the Austrian
government knows to be false.
"No, that is only an excuse. Austria is afraid of us, of our patriotism.
She has determined to crush us before we are too strong. She is
trembling because of her memory of how we crushed the Turks."