“That was a close call for you!” said the driver, in German.

But something in his tone made Fred look at him sharply.  And then part of the mystery was solved.  For the driver was not a German at all, but plainly and unmistakably a Russian.

“Yes—­but how—­why—?”

“Wait!  Don’t talk now!” said the driver.  “Wait till we’re inside.  We’ll be all right there, and I’ve got a few questions I’d like to ask, too.”

There was no more danger from the mob of villagers, however.  The speed of the car, even on the steep grade, was too great to give pursuers on foot a chance, and so its driver was able, in a few moments, to drive it through great open gates into a huge courtyard.

“Now who are you?” he asked.  “And why were those people attacking you?”

“They thought I was English,” said Fred.  “I suppose England must have declared war on Germany, too.”

“She has.  Aren’t you English, then?”

“No, I’m American.  My name’s Fred Waring.  You’re a Russian, aren’t you?”

“Yes.  My name’s Boris Suvaroff.  This is a summer place my father owns here.  He’s away.  I’m glad of that, because the Germans would have taken him prisoner if he’d been here.”

For just a moment neither seemed to catch the other’s name.  Then the Russian boy spoke.

“Fred Waring—­an American?” he said.  “I—­is it possible?  I’ve got a cousin called Waring in America!  My father’s first cousin married an American of that name years and years ago.”

“She was a Suvaroff—­my mother,” said Fred, but he spoke stiffly.  “Her family here disowned her—­”

“Some of them—­only some of them,” said Boris.  “Are you really my cousin?  My father wrote to your mother long ago—­but he got no answer!  He has often told me of her.  He was very fond of her!  Are you really my cousin?”

“I guess I am!” said Fred.  “I’m glad to know that some of you will own me!  My uncle Mikail had me arrested when I went to see him in Petersburg!”

And then while they learned about one another, the two of them forgot the war and the danger in which they stood.

CHAPTER IV

COUSINS

“So you have seen Mikail Suvaroff!” said Boris.  He shook his head.  “We have seen little of him in the last few years.  He and my father do not agree.  Mikail is on the side of the men about the Czar who want no changes, who want to see the people crushed and kept down.  My father wants a new Russia, with all the people happier and stronger.”

“Then I should think they wouldn’t agree,” said Fred, heartily.  “Mikail is like the Russians one reads about, dark and mysterious, and always sending people to Siberia and that sort of thing.”