m, when Phil suddenly saw some ghostly-looking horsemen issuing from
behind them, and clutching hold of Tony, dragged him forcibly into a
narrow ditch which he was in the act of crossing.

"What's up?" asked Tony, somewhat nettled; but Phil's whispered reply,
"Cossacks! Hush!" appeased him.

The ditch was half-filled with water, but a thorough sousing is
preferable to captivity, and the two companions squeezed still closer
into it, wedging themselves into its slime and mud, and thrusting their
bodies as far as possible beneath the long grass and reeds which sprang
from its bank, for a hasty glance and approaching sounds told them that
the Russians would probably pass close at hand. Five minutes later
their voices were audible, and a series of splashes and thuds told them
that they had leapt the ditch a few yards higher up.

"They are not there, and you have led us a fine goose-chase!" Phil
heard one of the Russians angrily exclaim. "What made you take us on
such a fool's errand, Petroff?"

"It is no fool's errand," another voice replied gruffly. "I distinctly
saw two figures cross the land beyond. They are not at the farm, that
is clear; but we shall catch them, and then they shall suffer. Pigs
that all Englishmen are! I myself will tie them to a wheel and thrash
them before their comrades. It will be a good example, and our master
the Czar would approve of it."

The speakers passed on, and Phil hastily interpreted what he had
overheard.

"Whack us, will they?" muttered Tony, gritting his teeth. "That's one
more chalked up against these Cossack chaps. Pigs, indeed! Yah!" And
his indignation being too great for words, he subsided into silence.
Giving the patrol sufficient time to get well away, they sprang from the
ditch, and hastily squeezing the water from their clothes, struck across
to the outhouses. Beyond them and within fifty paces was a small
farmhouse, standing in absolutely open fields, with not a sign of a
vineyard or patch of cultivated ground, while fenced-in enclosures and
distant bleating and lowing told that this was a grazing-farm, and that
its owner did not trust to crops for his livelihood.

By this time the light was distinctly clearer and the night was rapidly
drawing to a close; so that, if they were to escape observation, it was
necessary that they should hide themselves away.

"The outhouses will be the best for us," said Phil, thinking aloud.
"Come along, Tony; we must see