He was sent on errands, from one part of the house to another; often he carried written messages, handed to him by staff officers, to the room in which three telegraph operators were hard at work.

Generally speaking, he was there to do odd jobs and make himself generally useful.

Luckily, he was taken for granted.

Everyone seemed assured that he was one of the village boys, pressed into service because he happened to be the first one to come along.
But for the first hour or so it was impossible for him to make any attempt to discover if Boris was still in the house.

He was too busy, and he dared not spoil his opportunity to learn something really worth while by seeming to spy about.