red at
moderately-close range.

"Yes, they make a very fine sight," Phil admitted, to himself again,
"and I only wish I thought that we could beat them as easily as Tony
suggests. I wonder what our troops are doing!"

Turning his eyes to the left he swept them along the Chersonese heights,
and saw a long line of infantry there hurrying towards Balaclava, while
on an eminence to the left a brilliantly-dressed group suddenly
appeared, and, lifting telescopes, fixed them upon the Russians. It was
Lord Raglan and his staff.

Lowering his eyes still more, Phil swept them along the valley, and soon
hit upon the Heavy Brigade, looking, even at that distance, a most
formidable body of men, while their horses, laden with cavalry saddles
of great weight and a considerable amount of kit, seemed huge when
compared to the Cossack animals.

Passing from Scarlett's famous "Heavies", Phil's eyes then lit upon the
600 troopers of the Light Brigade. Bright, gallant fellows they looked
as they sat there jauntily upon their saddles and slowly rode up the
valley. And little did Phil and Tony, and for the matter of that
hundreds more who looked upon them in the early hours of that morning,
imagine that, long ere the sun set again and the grey mist fell upon
hill and valley, more than half of those fine horsemen would be silent
and still for ever.

Slowly, and as if careless of the huge mass of the enemy, they rode up
the valley till the mile which separated them from Phil and Tony was
considerably decreased.

There were friends close at hand, and, saddling up hurriedly, the two
prepared to gallop across to them. But now a turn in the fortune of
battle changed their plans, for, gallantly clinging to their position,
the Turks holding the battery on the extreme left nearest the Russians
had been decimated by a storm of shell, while, before they could think
of retiring, 11,000 grey-coated infantry came rushing up at them. What
could a mere handful of men do in the circumstances? They broke and
fled, and, seeing this, their comrades in the other redoubts also took
to their heels. Instantly a cloud of Russian horse burst from their
ranks, and, sweeping into the plain, made short work of the flying
gunners.

Phil and Tony looked on, disconcerted, for to ride across to the Light
Brigade now would mean almost certain destruction.

"Done again by those Cossacks!" grumbled Tony, who took all the enemy's
horsemen to be Cossacks. "Don