averse to arousing any false hopes.

"Now!" sharply commanded Ossip in his new-found voice. "And may God go
with us! Watch my feet, and don't crowd too much upon one another, but
keep each at a sazhen's distance or more--in fact, the more the better.
Yes, come, mates!"

With which, stuffing his cap into his bosom, and grasping the
spirit-level in his hands, Ossip set foot upon the ice with a sliding,
cautious, shuffling gait. At the same moment, there came from the bank
behind us a startled cry of:

"Where are you off to, you fools?"

"Never mind," said Ossip to ourselves. "Come along with you, and don't
stand staring."

"You blockheads!" the voice repeated. "You had far better return."

"No, no! come on!" was Ossip's counter-command. "And as you move think
of God, or you'll never find yourselves among the invited guests at His
holy festival of Eastertide."

Next Ossip sounded a police whistle, which act led the old soldier to
exclaim:

"Oh, that's the way, mate! Good! Yes, you know what to do. Now notice
will have been given to the police on the further bank, and, if we're
not drowned, we shall find ourselves clapped in gaol when we get there.
However, I'm not responsible."

In spite of this remonstrance, Ossip's sturdy voice drew his companions
after him as though they had been tied to a rope.

"Watch your feet carefully," once more he cried.

Our line of march was directed obliquely, and in the opposite direction
to the current. Also, I, as the rearmost of the party, found it
pleasant to note how the wary little Ossip of the silvery head went
looping over the ice with the deftness of a hare, and practically no
raising of the feet, while behind him there trailed, in wild-goose
fashion, and as though tied to a single invisible string, six dark and
undulating figures the shadows of which kept making themselves visible
on the ice, from those figures' feet to points indefinitely remote. And
as we proceeded, all of us kept our heads lowered as though we had been
descending from a mountain in momentary fear of a false step.

Also, though the shouting in our rear kept growing in volume, and we
could tell that by this time a crowd had gathered, not a word could we
distinguish, but only a sort of ugly din.

In time our cautious march became for me a mere, mechanical, wearisome
task, for on ordinary occasions it was my custom to maintain a pace of
greater rapidity. Thus, eventually I sank into the semiconscious