"The coast is clear, excellency," said the old Russian. "All the Germans have gone—a curse upon them! My master has told me to treat you as if you stood in his place until he returns. I have the things that Ivan brought. Is it your pleasure that I should deliver them to you?"
Fred was puzzled for a moment. Then he remembered the wireless.
"Oh, yes, by all means!" he said. "And show me the room where the wireless is. You know all about that, Vladimir?"
"I know where it is. I do not understand such devil's work, but I am an old man, and stupid."
Fred laughed.
"Perhaps it's devil's work, but if we have any luck it will be pretty useful to us," he said. "Come on, if it's safe for me to come out. There's a lot for me to do."
Vladimir led the way to the top of the house. On the roof, like a pent-house, there was a little room or cupola, and in this was a partially dismantled wireless installation. Fred was left there alone while Vladimir went off to get the things that Ivan had given to him for safekeeping, and he studied the installation closely. It was different from any that he had ever seen, but its leading principle, of course, was familiar to him. At first it surprised him to find that it was supplied with power by weak batteries, which the Germans had ruined.
"You couldn't send more than twenty miles with those batteries!" he said to himself.