been duly interpreted.

"I came to give valuable information to the Lords of the Universe," he
replied. "The Russians are on the move."

"Ha!" Sir Colin's interest was aroused. "Go on; make him speak out.
Say he shall go free if he tells us truly all he knows."

"Where are the Russians moving?" asked McKay.

"This way"--the man pointed back beyond Tchorgorum. "They are
collecting over yonder, many, many thousands, and are marching this
way."

"Do you mean that they intend to attack us?"

"I think so. Why else do they come? Yesterday there were none. All
last night they were marching; to-morrow, at dawn, they will be here."

"Who commands them?"

"Liprandi. I saw him, and they told me his name."

"This is most important," said Sir Colin; "we must know more. Find
out, sergeant-major, whether he can go back safely."

"Back within the Russian lines?"

"Exactly. He might go and return with the latest news."

"You would never see the fellow again, Sir Colin. He is only
humbugging us--"

"Put the question as I direct you," interrupted the general, abruptly.
"What we want is information; it must be got by any means."

"Yes, I will go," the prisoner promised, joining his hands with a
gesture as if taking an oath; "and I would return this very night; you
shall have the exact numbers; shall know the road they are coming,
when to expect them--all."

"Let him loose, then," said the general; "but warn him, if he plays us
false, that he had better not fall into our clutches again."

"You may trust him not to do that, sir," said McKay, rather
discontented at seeing his prisoner so easily set free.

The general ignored the remark, but he was evidently displeased at its
tone, for he now turned sharply on McKay, saying--

"As regards you--how comes it you speak Russian?"

"I was born in Moscow."

"Of Russian parents?"

"My father was a Pole by birth, but by extraction a Scotchman."

"What is your name?"

"McKay--Stanislas Anastasius Wilders McKay."

"Ah! Stanislas; I understand that. But how is it you were christened
Wilders? And Anastasius, too--that is a family name, I think. Are you
related to Lord Essendine?--a Wilders, in fact?"

"Yes, sir, by my mother's side."

"And yet you have taken the Queen's shilling! Strange! But it is no
business of mine. Young scapegrace, I suppose--"

"My character is as good as--" "yours," McKay would have said, but
his reverence for the general's rank restrained him. "