ed from wind, water, and tide must get
their sleep when they can.

To-night there were a few men standing at the foot of the street where
the steps are--river-workers who had property afloat and imprisoned by
the ice, dwellers, perhaps, in those cheap houses beneath the bridge
which are now gradually falling under the builder's hammer, who took a
sleepless interest in the prospects of a flood.

Martin went out onto the landing-stage, and looked about him as if he
also had a stake in this, one of nature's great lotteries. There he had
a fit of coughing, such as any man might have on such a night, and
at the most deadly time of the year. He waited ten minutes, perhaps,
coughing at intervals, and at length Kosmaroff came to him, not from the
land, but across the moving floes from the direction of the bridge.

"The water is running freely," he said, "through the middle arch. I have
a boat out there on the ice. Come!"

And he took the bread from Martin's arms, and led the way on to the
river that he knew so well in all its varying moods. The boat was lying
on the ice a few yards above the massive pier of the bridge, almost at
the edge of the water, which could be heard gurgling and lapping as it
flowed towards the sea with its burden of snow and ice. It was so dark
that Martin, stumbling over the chaos of ice, fell against the boat
before he saw it. It was one of the rough punts of a primeval simplicity
of build used by the sand-workers of the Vistula.

Kosmaroff gave his orders shortly and sharply. He was at home on the
unstable surface, which was half water, half ice. He was commander now,
and spoke without haste or hesitation.

"Help me," he said, "to carry her to the edge, but do not stand upright.
We can easily get away unseen, and you may be sure that no one will
come out on the ice to look for us. We must be twenty miles away before
dawn."

The boat was a heavy one, and they stumbled and fell several times;
for there was no foothold, and both were lightly made men. At last they
reached the running water and cautiously launched into it.

"We must lie down in the bottom of the boat," said Kosmaroff, "and take
our chances of being crushed until we are past the citadel."

As he spoke they shot under the bridge. Above them, to the left, towered
the terrace of the castle, and the square face of that great building
which has seen so many vicissitudes. Every window was alight. For
the castle is used as a barracks no