r you to 'draw the long bow.' You have done too much."

"That is true," agreed Chester.

Suddenly the giant frame fell back. Hal turned as best he could while
Chester leaned over him anxiously. Alexis extended a hand to each of
them, which they grasped.

"This," he said, pressing their hands in a still strong grip, "is the
end. I wish that I could have lived to see the outcome of this war."

"There can be but one outcome," replied Chester softly. "You may rest
assured of that."

"True," said the giant, "but I would like to have seen my old home
again."

The lads were silent. Finally Hal spoke.

"To think," he said, "that we are responsible for your fate; but for us
you would have remained with the army and have lived to the end of the
war. We are to blame."

"Sh-h-h," whispered the dying giant. The hand which held Chester's freed
itself and groped in his pocket. "But for you lads," he continued, "I
should never have won this."

He pulled from his pocket the Cross of St. George, pinned to his breast
by the Russian emperor, and gazed at it lovingly.

"It is well worth the sacrifice," he said.

Still holding the medal his hand again sought Chester's and pressed it.
His other hand still gripped Hal's.

"Good-by, boys," he said firmly. "Let the Grand Duke know."

The pressure upon their hands relaxed. The giant frame of Alexis
Vergoff, brave man and fighter extraordinary, stiffened and lay still.
He was dead.

And as the aeroplane swept over the sea to the distant coast of England
Hal and Chester mourned the loss of a true and stanch friend.

Arrived in England the lads saw the body of Alexis laid to rest with
fitting honors, and continued their mission to the continent, where Hal
put the document entrusted to his care by the Russian Grand Duke
Nicholas into the hands of Field Marshal Sir John French,
commander-in-chief of the British forces on the continent.

And so we shall take leave of them for a short time. Their subsequent
adventures will be found in a succeeding volume, entitled: "The Boy
Allies in the Trenches; or Midst Shot and Shell Along the Aisne."

THE END.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Boy Allies with the Cossacks, by Clair W. Hayes

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