Part 44 (2/2)
”No, Captain; but it is too good ato accept failure”
”The sun doesn't put onthat dies”
And then, as Anton resu Ellerey to breakfast
All the stones which had once served for seats and a table had been piled up against the door, and the food was spread in a little circle in the centre of the floor It was Stefan's arrangeruffly but fir less than his usual manner and intended for courtesy Maritza stood with her hands behind her watching him, a smile upon her lips
”There's more table than breakfast, Captain,” he said as Ellerey cas orderly There's little enough to say grace for, but there's a lesson in the display, for all that
It represents all that stands between us and starvation”
”With care, Stefan, we can live for--” And then Ellerey paused
”Quite so, Captain I've been trying to fix a limit myself and failed”
Ellerey looked at the scraps of food At any other time he would have spurned them as a meal of any sort; but in such a case as theirs was, e with possibilities
”To-day and perhaps to-morrow,” he e of diet by to-ht,” said Stefan, ”and for my part I shouldn't quarrel with any kind of food and drink which happened to arrive sooner There's no drawing from the mountain stream now and the flasks hold little”
”Much may happen in two days,” said Maritza quietly
”True They may storm the tower successfully and put us beyond the want of food before to-ht,” Ellerey answered
They ate their s eaten them re to be said, yet each one waited for the other to say it
”Captain” It was a relief to hear Stefan's voice, and Ellerey looked up ”Captain, Iadvice
I've seldoh company for it to be done without; but as we are, I take it each one of us becomes of more importance than under ordinary circumstances”
Ellerey nodded
”Well, then, o someone found me in the streets, and for some reason known only to thery then--I don't rery since I ot theer I'm not to be depended on The weapons in use for such a fray are new to me, and I don't kno to handle them I'm afraid of the enemy”
”Well, Stefan?”
”Now death, I suppose, is as certain within the next few hours as anything well can be, and I should like to meet the kind of death I understand Let us fix a ti down the barricade, and then et as far as the path, perhaps--there is just a chance that soet farther; but anyhoe die in the open”
”Have you thought of the Princess?” Ellerey asked
”The circuet her,” Stefan answered
”Nor difficult to hate her,” said Maritza
”I took a kind of liking to Grigosie which so to Ellerey and not looking at the Princess ”I don't suppose, however, that she knowsin the open may suit her case as well as mine”
”But a woman, Stefan?”