"Pals, hooray!" shouted Tony. "Phil, we'll join 'em. Get hold of your
nag and I'll take this other here. Now, up we get; and when the boys
come along, we goes at them beggars with them."

Caught by the excitement of the moment Phil vaulted over the wall, and
just as the dragoons came spurring by with drawn swords poised ready for
the encounter, he and Tony dashed out and joined them.

"What ho, mates!" sang out the troopers. "Coming for a picnic with us,
are yer? Good, boys!"

There was no time for more. Setting spurs to their horses, the troop,
which was only ten strong counting Phil and Tony, went headlong at the
Cossacks. The latter pulled up immediately, hesitated for a moment, and
were on the point of flying, when the impossibility of getting away from
dragoons mounted on fresh English horses occurred to them. They threw
down their arms and sullenly waited to be made prisoners.

"Each of you catch hold of one of their reins and come along, quick,"
sang out the non-commissioned officer who was in charge of the dragoons.
"That's it. Now off we go, back to the cart."

"How far is the camp away?" asked Phil.

"Five miles, I should think, corporal. We'll have to look precious
smart. As soon as we get the horses in, and the boxes loaded up, we'll
scatter. I've enough men to spare--two in front, and two well out on
the flanks. Then if we're attacked we'll make a running fight of it."

"We've a wounded friend under the cart," replied Phil, "but I expect if
we perch him up on top of the ammunition-boxes he'll be able to drive.
Then Tony and I will give a hand by looking after the prisoners. It'll
be grand getting back to camp safely with our charge, and with a few of
the Cossacks in addition, though, mind you, we would have been prisoners
if you fellows hadn't ridden up in the nick of time."

"You're right there, corporal. You chaps made a fine stand of it, we
can all see, and we'll not forget to say something about it when we get
into camp. But you were fair goners if we hadn't been out and heard the
firing. Now let's get smartly ahead. Some more Cossacks will be riding
down before long, and though we're all game for a brush with them, we
don't want to lose this chance of bringing in prisoners."

By this time the cart had been reached, and while half the patrol
guarded the prisoners, the remainder set to work and rapidly loaded it
with the ammunition. Then the horses were yoked, Sam was placed u