at
awful glow grew brighter, and when we drew near we saw that half the
houses in the Jewish quarter were ablaze, while horrible sounds came to
us,--the noise of a devils' orgy, punctuated irregularly by the crackle
of rifle shots.

"They are holding the synagogue," Loris said grimly. "Otherwise the
firing would be over by this time."

The straggling street that formed this end of the town was quiet and
deserted, save for a few scared women and children, who were standing in
the roadway, and who scurried back to their houses at the first sound of
our horses' hoofs.

"Dismount, and turn the horses loose!" Loris commanded. "We shall find
them later, perhaps; if not, well, we shall not!"

We hurried along on foot, and a minute or two later we entered the
Jewish quarter and were in the midst of a hellish scene, lighted luridly
by the glare of the burning houses. The road was strewn with battered
corpses, some lying in heaps; and burly _moujiks_, shrieking unsexed
viragoes, and brutal soldiers, maddened with vodka, delirious with the
lust of blood and pillage, were sacking the houses that were not yet
ablaze, destroying, in insensate fury, what they were unable to carry
off, fighting like demons over their plunder. Here and there were groups
of soldiers, who, though they were not joining in the work of
destruction, made no effort to check it, but looked on with grim jests.
I saw one present his rifle, fire haphazard into the crowd, and yell
with devilish mirth as his victim fell, and the confusion increased.

His laugh was cut short, for Loris knocked the rifle out of his hand,
and sternly ordered him back to the barracks, if that was all he could
do towards restoring order.

The man and his comrades stared stupidly. They did not know who he was,
but his uniform and commanding presence had their effect. The ruffians
stood at attention, saluted and asked for orders!

"Clear the streets," he commanded sternly. "Drive the people back to
their quarter and keep them there; and do it without violence."

He stood frowning, revolver in hand, and watched them move off with
sheepish alacrity and begin their task, which would not have been an
easy one if the soldiers had been under discipline. But there was no
discipline; I did not see a single officer in the streets that night.

"Are you wise?" Mishka growled unceremoniously, as we moved off. I saw
now that he and his father were also in uniform, and I surmise that
every on