n carrying over his shoulder
with great care.

"I have ten pounds of powder here!"

He proceeded to place this box in the hole, which it entirely filled.
Then he produced a long wick, one end of which he inserted in the box.
Then he nearly closed the box, leaving it only sufficiently open for the
wick to burn easily.

"If our guns fail us," said Simon, grimly, "this will soon settle the
matter!"

At this moment, from out of the woods on the side of the road sprang a
man, shouting:

"Save me! Save me!"

Simon saw that the fellow was a gipsy, and that he had been wounded.

"Save me!" repeated the gipsy, "they will kill me!"

"Zounds! fellow," cried Michel, "who are you afraid of? I believe you
are a spy!"

Simon motioned to Michel to be silent, and questioned the man who
proceeded to say that he and his companions had been seized to act as
guides through the forest.

"We refused," he said, "because you French had always been good to us.
Then the soldiers killed one after the other of us as fast as we
refused, and I ran away. They fired at me, and wounded me in the head.
Oh! save me!"

Neither Simon nor Michel noticed the almost theatrical exaggeration of
this fellow's gestures.

"The Cossacks are near?" asked Simon. "How many?"

"About five hundred."

"On this road?"

"Yes. Hark!"

The three men listened, and distinctly heard the smothered footfall of
horses in the snow.

"They are coming!" said Simon.

The Bohemian crouched against the rock, and hiding his face, shivered
with fear.

Simon entered the gorge, and carrying his fingers to his lips made a
noise that sounded like the hoarse caw of a crow. Other signals answered
this, showing that all were ready.

Simon stood listening. The sounds came nearer and nearer, and,
presently, some fifty yards away, appeared the Cossacks. They came
slowly, uneasy at the profound silence. Simon aimed at the leader, fired
and the Cossack fell. Frightful yells filled the air, but they continued
to advance.

Then from every rock and tree came a rain of balls, the echoes from the
granite walls making the invaders suppose that the opposing force was a
hundred times what it really was.

The Cossacks were ready enough to return the fire, but they saw no
enemy; not a human being. Still they moved on, closing up their ranks,
and their horses trampling on the dead bodies of their comrades. They
reached the gorge. The peasants, sure of their prey, now forgot all