San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-10-24

POSSESSION OF J1S revolver. Iney travel
ed ON through the forest until long past
noon, and then, worn out by long march,
ing and by hunger, they halted by
small stream. 1t was impossible to pro-
coed farther without food. A close
search revealed few stunted raspber-
ries, which were eagerly devoured.
Birds were chattering overhead in the
trees, but Grodno refused to use his
weapon, for fear the Cossacks would
hear the report and be attracted to the
spot. They succeeded in finding enough
raspberries partly to satisfy their hum
ger, and with fresh hope they struggled
on for three or four miles.
Toward sunset glad sight met their
eyes. In small clearing amid the for
est stood roughly built log hut. Grod-
no advanced boldly to the door and, aft
er two or three unanswered knocks,
flung it open and entered. He reappear-
ed in moment, reckoning to bis COM
panions, and they hurried eagerly for
ward.
"Some woodcutter's hut, said Grod-
no. "The owner has gone away, but he
was considerable enough to leave this
behind him" and he pointed to cou-
pie of hard loaves of bread and guam
tity of dried mushrooms. A careful
search revealed nothing else that could
be Of use save few matches, and leav-
ing the hut they pressed ON through the
forest With sunset came chilly
breeze, but this caused the fugitives
little inconvenience with their heavy
wooden clothing, and when it became
too dark to travel they camped by the
side of big rock and pulled branches
from the birch trees to make bed.
sit was very encouraging sign,"
Grodno said, THAT no trace of pursuit
had yet come near them.
He conversed awhile with Hamid, |
and then both went calmly to sleep.
Maurice and Phil remained awake |
for some time, listening to the rustling
of the breeze in the tree tops and think |
ing over their dreary situation. In spite |
of their WEAKNESS they were unable to
sleep.
81 wish it were possible to make our |
way back to Russia without our COM
panions, said Maurice. "They are both |
hard characters. ! am certain of that, |
and they may intend to commit other |
crimes We may find ourselves in a |
worse plight than we were in before"
81 agree with you there" replied
Phil, land, what is more, I have a
dreadful suspicion that it was Grodno
and Hamid who set the barge ON fire. -,
"By JoveP' exclaimed Maurice sud-
denly. "Why didn't think of that be-
fore? You are right, Phil; you are GER
tainly right. These two scoundrels
started that fire in order to escape and
ran the risk of burning all those poor ]
wretches alive What bloodthirsty fiends
they must be! / declare I'm sorry we
left the barge at all. Why, Phil, if we
are caught now they'll probably shoot
us. We are equally guilty with these
two villains. Grodno says he can pro-
cure us other clothing, and as that is
absolutely necessary we will be COM
PEELED to stay with them for few days
yet, but at the very first opportunity we
will leave them and strike out for our
selves. 1t is mighty slim chance, but
anything is preferable to keeping COM
pany with such men,"
"Hushp' said Phil. 81 believe they
are awake.
The boys had barely time to lie down
and feign sleep when Grodno sat up and
looked around him.
He fell back in a moment, and after
lying awake for nearly an hour longer,
not daring to resume the conversation,
the boys finally fell into restless slum-
Der that lasted until daybreak.
Enough food still remained to make
the fugitives a breakfast, and after
hunting up small stream, where the
boys washed their faces and quenched
their thirst, the march was resumed to
the westward.
So great was the aversion which
Maurice and Phil felt toward their COM
panions since the mutual discovery
made the previous night that it was i'm
possible to avoid showing it. Grodno
perhaps realized something of this, for
his repulsive face wore a sullen aspect,
and he turned his whole attention to
Hamid, carrying on an animated con-
versation, not word of which the boys
understood.
A few hours march through the
same monotonous forest brought them
to the edge of vast open plain carpet
ed with waving grass and numerous
wild flowers.
Along the edge of the woods ran
well defined road. ON which recent wheel
tracks were plainly visible, and less
than two miles distant lowered from
the plain a couple of gilded crosses !
shining in the morning sun and a clus-
ter of low, gray houses.
AS they stood gazing in CONSERVATION
on the distant village and the open
country Grodno fiercely motioned them
under cover.
Along the very side of the road lay
dense timber, with high grass and scat
tered rocks. Crouching down in this,
the boys could see vehicle of some
sort approaching rapidly from the direc-
ton of the village. As it drew nearer