on, and when the carts come along from the chateau half an hour before
daybreak it is arranged that you will take the places of two of the
drivers, who will at once return home. There will be no loading to do,
as the carts will be laden with flour for the army before they leave
to-night, so you will only have to go along with the others, and take
your places in the convoy. After starting the doctor will come along
the line, and seeing Dick limping, will order him to take his place in
one of the carts under his immediate charge, with medicines and
bedding for the hospitals. One driver more or less in a team of some
hundreds of wagons all following each other along a straight road will
not be noticed. So you will journey south for a week or so, until Dick
has thoroughly recovered his strength. You had then, we think, better
make to the west by the Odessa road. The doctor will take two
uniforms, there are plenty obtainable in the hospital, for you to put
on. You must of course run the risk of questioning and detection by
the way, but this cannot be avoided, and at least you will be beyond
the range of search from here, and will be travelling by quite a
different road from that which you would naturally take proceeding
hence. And now tell us all about your affair with the governor. We
have only so far heard his version of the affair, which of course we
knew to be false; but why he should have attacked you in the way he
did, we cannot quite understand."
Dick gave an account of the struggle and the causes which led to it,
owning himself greatly to blame for his imprudence in acquainting the
governor with his knowledge of his secret. He also gave full credit to
Jack for his promptness, not only in seizing the governor and so
saving a repetition of the blow, which would probably have been fatal,
but also in destroying the report and forged evidence of Paul before
interruption. The lads gained great credit with all for their
gallantry, and Katinka said, laughing, "It is wrong to say so, I
suppose, now he is dead, but I should like to have seen the count
struggling as Jack carried him along, like a little ant with a great
beetle." They all laughed.
"Oh, come now," Jack said; "there was not so much difference as all
that. He was not over six feet, and I suppose I am only about five
inches less, and I'm sure I was not much smaller round the shoulders
than he was."
"And now about your route," the count said. "You must not lose time.
Do you both quite agree with me that it would be next to impossible
for you to pass through the lines of our army and to gain your own?"
"Quite impossible," Dick agreed. "Jack and I have talked it over again
and again, and are of opinion that it could not be done even in
Russian uniforms. We should be liable to be questioned by every
officer who met us as to the reason of our being absent from our
regiment, and should be certain to be found out. We thought that it
might be possible to get hold of a fishing-boat, and sail down to join
the fleet. There would be of course the risk of being blown off the
shore or becalmed, and it would be difficult to lay in a stock of
provisions."
"Besides," the count said, "there is no blockade at Odessa, and our
small war-steamers cruise up and down the coast, so that you would be
liable to capture. No, I am sure your best way will be to go by land
through Poland. There are still large bodies of troops to the
southwest, facing the Turks, and it would be better for you to keep
north of these into Poland. You can go as wounded soldiers on furlough
returning home; and, being taken for Poles, your broken Russian will
appear natural. I will give you a letter which the countess has
written to the intendant of her estates in Poland, and he will do
everything in his power."
"I would rather not carry a letter," Dick said, "for it would
compromise you if we were taken. It would be better, if I might
suggest, for the countess to write to him direct, saying that when two
persons arrive and give some pass-word, say, for instance, the names
of your three daughters, we shall not forget them, he is to give us
any help we may require."
This was agreed upon, and the party chatted until the count said that
it was time for them to dress. Going into another room, the boys clad
themselves in two peasant costumes, with the inseparable sheepskin
coat which the Russian peasant clings to until the full heat of summer
sets in, and which is, especially during a journey, invaluable. The
count then insisted upon their taking a bundle of rouble notes to the
value of 200 l., and upon their urging that they could have no possible
need of so much money, he pointed out that there was no saying what
emergencies might occur during their journey, and that after passing
the frontier they would require a complete outfit, and would have to
pay the expenses of their journey, either to England or the east,
whichever they might decide upon. They rejoined the party in the front
room just as a rumble of carts was heard approaching. There was a
hasty parting. Father, mother, and daughters kissed the midshipmen
affectionately. Jack squeezed Olga's hand at parting, and in another
minute they were standing in front of the door.
"Yours will be the last two carts," the count said.
When these arrived opposite the house the count stepped forward and
said a word to the drivers, who instantly fell behind, while the boys
took up their places by the oxen and moved along with the procession
of carts.
CHAPTER XVII.
A JOURNEY IN DISGUISE
The start was accomplished. Many hundreds of carts were assembled in
the great square. A mounted officer and a small guard of soldiers had
formed across the road which they were to follow, and as soon as
daylight had fairly appeared he gave the word, and the carts began to
file off along the southern road, an account being taken of each cart,
as it passed out, by an officer on duty, to see that the number which
had been requisitioned were all present. No question was asked of the
boys.
As the driver of the first of those belonging to the count reported
twelve carts, each laden with thirty sacks of flour supplied by Count
Preskoff, the officer, seeing the number was correct, allowed them to
pass without further question. Dick found himself still extremely
weak, and could not have proceeded many hundred yards, if he had not
taken a seat on the cart behind his oxen.
After two hours' travelling there was a halt for a quarter of an hour,
and the doctor, passing along, spoke to Dick, and then walked with him
back along the line to the hospital carts which were in the rear. Here
Dick took his place among some bales of blankets, and another was
thrown over him, in such a way that his presence there would not be
suspected by any one riding past the cart. Upon the train proceeding
Jack took charge of the two carts. This was an easy task, the oxen
proceeding steadily along without deviating from the line, and
requiring no attention whatever beyond an occasional shout and a blow
of the stick when they loitered and left a gap in the line.
Alongside the drivers walked in groups of three or four, talking
together, and thus the fact that one of the wagons was without its
driver passed unnoticed. Alexis had told the count's serfs who
accompanied the carts that their master had arranged at the last
moment for hired men to take the places of two of their number, one of
whom had a wife sick at home, and the other was engaged to be married
shortly. He had also told them that it was their master's wish that
they should enter into no conversation with the strangers, as these
were from a northern province, and scarcely understood the southern
dialect.
Accustomed to obey every command of their master without hesitation,
the serfs expressed no wonder even among themselves at an order which
must have appeared somewhat strange to them. It was the count's
pleasure, and that was sufficient for them. At the end of the day,
Dick rejoined his comrade, and assisted him to feed the oxen, who
required no further attention except the removal of the yoke, when
they lay down upon the ground and slept in their places. Dick brought
him a supply of cold meat and white bread, and a bottle of wine; and
the lads, choosing a place apart from the others, enjoyed their meal
heartily, and then, climbing up on to the top of their flour sacks,
wrapped themselves in their sheepskins and were soon sound asleep.
That evening a soldier brought a message to the officer in charge of
the escort, telling him that the two English prisoners had by the aid
of their warder effected their escape, bidding him search the convoy,
and keep a sharp lookout along the road and ordering him to give
information to all village and military authorities, and instruct them
to send messages to all places near, warning the authorities there not
only to keep a sharp lookout, but again to forward on the news; so
that in a short time it would be known in every village in the
province.
In the morning, before starting, the officer in charge of the escort
rode along the line, examining every wagon carefully, asking the names
of the drivers, and referring to a paper with which he had been
furnished by the owners of the carts, at starting, giving the names of
the drivers. The head man of the party from Count Preskoff's responded
at once for the twelve men under him; and satisfied that the fugitives
were not in the convoy, the officer gave orders to proceed.
This time Dick was able to walk two or three miles before dropping
back to the hospital wagon. The next day he went still farther, and by
the end of a week announced himself to be as strong as ever, and the
doctor allowed that he could now be trusted to travel.
On this night they had halted at a point where a road, running east
and west, crossed the great road to the Crimea. Before starting, the
boys had a long chat with their friend the doctor, who furnished them
with military passes which he had procured from an officer. These
testified that Ivan Petrofski and Alexis Meranof, of the 5th Polish
Regiment, were proceeding home on sick-furlough.
The signature of the colonel was no doubt fictitious, but this
mattered but little. Jack inquired whether their absence in the
morning would not be likely to be remarked; but the doctor said that
the head of the party had been informed by Demetri that the two
strangers would only accompany them for a few days' march, and had
only been hired to satisfy the authorities that the right number of
men had been furnished, for the want of hands on the estate was now so
great owing to the heavy drain of conscripts to fill up the losses
caused by the war, that the count had been glad to retain the services
of the two who had been left behind. There was therefore to be no
remark concerning the disappearance of the new hands, but the others
were to take charge of their carts, and if possible the authorities
were to be kept unacquainted with the fact that their number was
incomplete.
The peasants' dresses were now exchanged for the uniforms of Russian
soldiers. Dick's head was wrapped in bandages, and his arm placed in a
sling. Jack's leg was also enveloped in bandages, the trousers being
slit up to the hip, and the sides loosely tied together by a piece of
string, and the doctor gave him a pair of crutches, the same as those
used in regimental hospitals.
"Now you will do," he said, surveying them by the light of a lantern.
"Many of the soldiers who have joined since the outbreak of the war
are mere boys, so your age will not be against you, only pray for a
time give up all idea as to the necessity of washing. The dirtier your
hands and faces, the better, especially if the dirt will hide your
clear healthy color, which is very unlike the sallow complexions
almost universal among our peasantry. And now, good-bye. I move about
too much to hope to receive any letter from you, but as you have of
course arranged with Count Preskoff to send him word when you have
safely crossed the frontier, I shall hear of you from him."
With many deep and hearty thanks for the kindness he had shown them,
the boys parted from him, and, setting their faces to the west, took
the road to Odessa. Jack carried his crutches on his shoulders, as
also the long strap which, when he used them, was to pass over his
neck, and down under his foot, keeping it off the ground.
They had made many miles before morning, and as they had retained
their sheepskin cloaks, which had been served out to many of the
troops, they were able to get a comfortable sleep under shelter of a
protecting wall. Five days' walking took them to Odessa. This town was
not upon the direct road, but they still clung to the hope of getting
away by sea.
On the journey they had met several bodies of troops and many convoys
of provisions and stores. Whenever they observed the former to be
approaching, they left the road, and sheltered themselves behind
bushes or inequalities of the ground at a distance from the road, as
they knew they would be liable to be questioned as to the state of
things at the front. They did not, however, go out of their way for
convoys, as they passed these with short salutations in reply to the
greetings or pitying remarks from the drivers. Their Russian was good
enough to pass muster when confined to short sentences of a formal
kind. Their hearts beat when, on passing over a rise, they saw the
blue water stretching out far before them, and they again debated the
possibility of seizing a boat. But the sight of two gun-boats steaming
slowly along the shore convinced them that the attempt would be an
extremely dangerous one.
Odessa is not a fortress, and the boys consequently entered it
unquestioned. The town was crowded with wounded and sick soldiers, and
their appearance attracted no attention whatever. In the principal
