The keenest interest was taken in Reuben Cowder's trip--for of course he was going. He was settling things for as long an absence as necessary, doing it feverishly, joyfully--he who had always stuck night and day at his post and grumbled at every business trip that he could not escape. He would be ready to start as soon as the cablegram came; Nancy had said early in October. But October came. The first week passed--and no cablegram. The second week, and none. And then there fell on Reuben Cowder with crushing force the news of the second invasion of Serbia. From north and west came the Austro-Hungarians--from the west the Bulgars--hordes of them. This time there was to be no mistake. Serbia was not merely to be conquered; she was to be crushed, and the remnants swept into the sea. The suddenness, the mass, the extent of the attack, left no doubt in Reuben Cowder's mind that whatever Serbia's fate might be--and that was as nothing to him--Nancy had been trapped. Unless she had reached Salonika before the advance, she'd have hardly a shadow of a chance. And he told himself, too, that if she saw need, she would not leave. His forebodings were so black that Dick urged him to go at once to London, as he had planned, not waiting for a cablegram: "I will send it when it comes. You'll be there to greet her when she does get out. If she doesn't come, try to arrange to go to Serbia yourself." And it was on this advice that late in the month Reuben Cowder acted. Before sailing, he had in Washington used every official channel to get information of his daughter, but to no avail. When it seemed certain that for the time being--and he was everywhere assured it was only for "the time being"--that he could not get news, he sailed, having first made elaborate arrangements with Dick about informing him if anything was heard. By the time he reached London, the completeness of the disaster to Serbia was known. Her armies had been defeated on every side--they, and practically the entire population, were in retreat; had embarked for Corfu. For the moment the little island held the only organized remnant of the Serbian nation.