This house, you see, was built at a time when intrigue was more common than now.

But when my father began to see, as he did years ago, that Germany was sure to force war upon us, and that it would probably come in his lifetime, he made many changes.
This is not really a private house at all--it is a little outpost of Russia, here in the midst of an enemy's country.

And it is not the only one.

In Silesia and in Galicia we have places like it." "Perhaps the Germans will find that Russia is not so slow after all!" Outside now there rose a peculiar sound, but one that Fred identified at once.
"That sounds like your Germans coming now, Boris," he said, quietly.
"I've heard crowds making just that same noise at home--on election night, for instance, when they were coming to make the winner give them a speech." Boris listened for a moment, then he went to a window.
"Yes," he said.

"But it's not the sort of Germans we need to worry about.