Part 34 (1/2)

”Four hundred versts,” he repeated. ”I did not know. I don't see how we are to reach Warsaw before it is German.” He turned to Ian. ”Do you, sir, help me lay my little horse in its grave. Then we can decide.”

Hastily they put it into a trench, and the Cossack kicked earth over it, telling his story, meanwhile, in odd, broken Polish, of which he was very proud. He had been captured by the Prussians not far from Ruvno, and taken to the Vistula, he was not clear where, to be sent by water into Germany. But their boat was sh.e.l.led by the Russians and wrecked.

Like all Cossacks he was an expert swimmer and he swam up against the tide, got ash.o.r.e near a wood and struck the high road from Thorn to Warsaw. He had been riding since early morning and Sietch was already much tried when they were captured.

But for all his advocating the Grodno route, he seemed loathe to leave his new friends and strike out done when he saw that they were bent upon trying to get to Sohaczev. I think the knowledge, gathered from their talk amongst themselves, that Ian knew every by-way and short-cut to that town--for much of the way lay on his own land--impressed him.

”I am strange to this country,” he explained. ”I might not find the river, to strike across country into Lithuania, and four hundred versts is a long way.”

”You will come up with your friends once you cross the river,” said Ian.

”The Russians still held the right bank of the Vistula, this evening.”

”Have you no horses?” he asked.

Vanda told him that Ruvno and its contents lay under a wreckage of brick and stone. Ian turned to his mother.

”I am for pus.h.i.+ng on to Warsaw,” he said. ”Neither of us can tramp four hundred versts within three weeks. We must trust to our luck to find the Grand Duke in Sohaczev. Von Senborn said this morning that he was there, waiting for the rest of his army to come up.”

”Very well,” she said, putting her arm in his. ”If only I could see the Grand Duke, he'd send us to Warsaw by hook or by crook. War changes many things, but it doesn't kill the convenience of having powerful friends.”

”Will he go with us?” asked Vanda, meaning the Cossack.

”I hope not,” whispered her aunt.

”They are wild people at the best,” said the Father, speaking English.

”If he joins us he'll see your jewels taken from the earth.”

”Besides,” said Ian, ”if the Prussians catch us alone they may give us a pa.s.s to Warsaw--G.o.d knows, we're harmless beggars, even to them. But to have an escaped prisoner--only--how to tell him?”

”Well--are we going to start?” asked the Cossack. n.o.body answered.

He was no fool, for he guessed the reasons why they greeted his proposal in stony silence. I suppose he thought a woman would be soft-hearted, so addressed himself to the Countess, giving one of his awkward bows.

”Madam,” he said, ”I know you think me a savage Cossack, given to pilfering and all sorts of wildness. But I am a good Cossack, of the Don Troop, coming of many atamans. My name is Ostap Hovodsky; my mother is an Efremov. We serve the Tsar with our own horses, uniforms and arms; we are warriors and farmers, but neither Huns nor Prussians. You need not fear for any treasure you may have about you for your journey. As to this”--he threw down his pistol--”it has been in the water and I have had no ammunition for a week. And this,” he tore off his ragged coat and threw it into the ditch. ”I spit upon it. I always meant to change it the moment I could find a dead man to pilfer. This is no place for Cossack uniforms. I'll walk in my s.h.i.+rt, or without it, rather than make you anxious. If you want my company you will not regret it. From your looks I see you are not used to make your way through deserted battlefields. You will find me useful, and I shall be glad to know the nearest way to report myself to Nicolai Nicolaievitch.”

”I will take you with pleasure,” said Ian, who felt confidence in him after this little speech. ”But there are others.”

”I, too,” agreed Minnie, who naturally did not share the Polish aversion to Cossacks.

”I believe you'll be our friend,” said Vanda.

”I have known good Cossacks,” said Father Constantine, ”and I think you are one of them.”

The Countess said no more, so it was settled that Ostap, as he insisted on their calling him, should go with them. He thanked them, and then, of a sudden, took the initiative, and became their leader.

”You have no pick?” he asked.

They looked at each other in consternation. It was true. In his haste to leave the house Ian had forgotten to bring a spade, to dig up the jewels.

”Where do the Prussians lie now?” he asked again. Ian took him up the bank by the windmill site and showed him, so far as he knew, where they had occupied Ruvno soil.