it, for the brave and energetic enemy had already
reconstructed the defences, and made good all the damage that had been
done.

Almost a whole month had passed from the date of their incarceration,
when one morning the prisoners in Sebastopol were awakened by a roar of
exploding artillery.

"What's that?" asked Phil, starting up suddenly and throwing off his
blanket. "Listen, you fellows! Yes, there it goes again. That banging
is the Russian artillery. Wait a minute and we shall hear our own at
work."

A moment later a distant, muttering growl told them that the Allies were
answering the fire, while, had there been any doubt, a peculiar shriek
overhead, which all had heard before, and the fall of a wall close at
hand, told them that a shell from the far-off guns had found a mark.

"Blow me!" exclaimed Tony excitedly. "Supposing one of them shells
found its way in here!"

"What, yer ain't afraid!" jeered a big rifleman who was amongst the
prisoners. "You 'as helped to save the colours, too!"

"Afraid! Booby! I'll punch yer head if yer don't mind what yer
saying," retorted Tony hotly. "It ain't that I was thinking of, but of
trying to get out of this. Supposing a hole got knocked in the wall,
couldn't we chaps climb through it, and shy bricks at the sentries.
Then we'd make a rush for it. You may bet all these Russian soldiers
are busy in the forts."

A grunt of assent went round the gathered prisoners, and far from being
nervous or anxious lest a shell should knock the house about their ears,
they sat there longing to hear the crash and make a dash for liberty.

That such an eventuality might occur had evidently struck the Russians,
for that night the doors of the prison were thrown open, and the
prisoners ordered out with their blankets. Then they were marched under
a strong guard to the harbour and ferried across.

"Where do we go?" Phil asked the soldier who sat in the boat by his
side.

"That you will see," was the gruff reply. "But you leave the Crimea at
once, and I do not envy you your long march. It is fine weather now,
but as you get north you will meet the rains and cold winds, and you
will wish yourself back in Sebastopol."

Arrived on the northern bank of the harbour, the prisoners were grouped
together, and a meal of hot coffee and bread given them. Then they set
out, two ranks of armed guards marching on either side, while some
twenty fierce-looking Cossacks hovered here and t