e to this
arrangement.

"But though we do not take their clothes, we will make free with their
swords and ponies," continued Phil, "and so soon as it is dark we will
get away from this. By riding at night, and making allowances for the
wide detours we shall be compelled to undertake, we should reach our
friends in three days at most. We have still a large piece of meat
left, and with that and the bread that remains, and an occasional drink
of water, we must be satisfied. Now we'll secure this fellow. Slip
down and get some of that harness, like a brick, will you, Tony?"

That evening, soon after dusk had fallen, two stealthy figures crept
from the shed, and stole towards the outhouse in which the Cossack
ponies were kept. The door was only latched, and, waiting merely to
slip on the bridles and tighten the girths, the two adventurous
Englishmen vaulted into the saddle and rode out into the night. They
were not gone many minutes when the farmer, wondering at the prolonged
absence of the Cossacks, and having seen them turn their ponies into the
shed, came to see if the animals were still there, and, finding them
gone, returned in anything but a pleasant mood to his house.

"Those two brutes are gone, wife," he said testily. "They have not even
thanked us for our hospitality, nor paid for the vodka which they drank.
May it kill them then is all that I wish!"

Had he but known it, his unkind thought had already been partially
accomplished, for in his hay-loft one of the Cossacks lay dead, a victim
indeed to the fiery spirit, while the second, destined for many days to
be sick in his house, and demand careful nursing and feeding at his
expense, reclined, unconscious, in a heap of straw, bound hand and foot,
but left ungagged, a circumstance of which he took advantage early in
the morning by screaming for help at the top of his voice.

Once more returning to the post-road, Phil and Tony rode along it
quietly, only the jangle of their Cossack swords breaking the silence.
Three hours later a line of watch-fires in the distance told them that
they were approaching the Russian field-army, and warned them to find
some safe hiding-place.

"They are seven or eight miles away at least," said Tony, "and we are
lucky to have spotted them so soon."

"Yes, Tony, we are," Phil remarked thoughtfully. "We are still more
lucky, for this side they will have only a few pickets and outposts, and
we must be far outside their circ