hen holding
him by his collar, made him run along with them.

When they had mounted the other side of the slope, and were out of
fire of the guns, the party halted, and Jack, hearing his own name
called, looked round, and saw Hawtry in the snow, where his captors
had dropped him.

"Hullo, Dick! old fellow," Jack shouted joyfully; "so there you are. I
was afraid they had killed you."

"I'm worth a lot of dead men yet, Jack. I've been hit in the leg, and
went down, worse luck, and that rascally Russian would have skewered
me if you hadn't shot him. You saved my life, old fellow, and made a
good fight for me and I shall never forget it; but it has cost you
your liberty."

"That's no great odds," Jack said. "It can't be much worse stopping a
few months in a Russian prison, than spending the winter upon the
heights. Besides, with two of us together, we shall be as right as
possible, and maybe, when your leg gets all right again, we'll manage
to give them the slip."

The Russian officer in command of the party, which was about 200
strong, now made signs to the boys that they were to proceed.

Dick pointed to his leg, and the officer examined the wound. It was a
slight one, the ball having passed through the calf, missing the bone.

He was, however, unable to walk. A litter was formed of two muskets
with a great-coat laid between them, and Dick, being seated on this,
was taken up by four men, and Jack taking his place beside him, the
procession started. They halted some four miles off at a village in a
valley beyond the Tchernaya.

The next day the boys were placed on ponies, and, under the escort of
an officer and six troopers, conducted to Sebastopol. Here they were
taken before a Russian general who, by means of an interpreter,
closely examined them as to the force, condition, and position of the
army.

The lads, however, evaded all questions by stating that they belonged
to the fleet, and were only on duty on the heights above Balaklava,
and were in entire ignorance of the force of the army and the
intentions of its general. As to the fleet, they could tell nothing
which the Russians did not already know.

The examination over, they were conducted to one of the casemates of
Fort St. Nicholas. Here for a fortnight they remained, seeing no one
except the soldier who brought them their food. The casemate was some
thirty feet long by eighteen wide, and a sixty-eight-pounder stood
looking out seaward. There the bo