as everywhere in a glow. Suddenly there came a puff of
wind, and as the mist thinned for a moment I saw that the whole ravine
was full of Russians. Their advance already was half-way up the bank
nearest to our works. In less than ten minutes the whole of them would
be dashing into our outlying redoubts. As I pulled the trigger of my
musket I tried to shout, but my throat was as dry as a furnace and I
could only gasp. And--will you believe it?--my musket missed fire! Name
of a name, what a state I was in! There was the enemy coming on under
cover of the mist; and there was I, the only man who could save our
army, standing dumb like a useless fool!

"What I must do came to me like a flash. If I ran back inside of our
lines to give the alarm, the chances were a thousand to one that the
enemy would have the outlying redoubt, very likely would have them both,
and would turn the guns before help could come. But I knew, at least
I hoped, that there was time for me to get to the more exposed redoubt
ahead of them and give the word to spike the guns. It was all in an
instant, I say, that I found this thought in my mind, and my musket and
cartridge-box thrown I don't know where, and myself dashing off through
the mist across the broken ground like a deer.

"As I rushed into the redoubt our men thought that I was the Russians;
and when they knew me by my uniform for a Frenchman, and heard me crying
in a hoarse whisper, 'Spike the guns!' they thought that I was mad. But
the lieutenant in command of the battery had at least a little sense,
even if he did not have much courage, and he looked towards where I
pointed--and then he saw the shakos, as the mist lifted again, not a
hundred feet away.

"'Save yourselves, I will make the guns safe,' he cried to his men--he
was not all a coward, poor fellow--and as they ran for it he picked up
the spikes and the hammer. Tap! tap! tap! one gun was spiked. Tap!
tap! tap! another. Then we heard the Russians beginning to scramble up
outside.

"He swore a great oath as he dropped the hammer. 'It can't be done.
Run, cat!' he cried--and away he started after his men. The name that I
called him as he ran away, Monsieur, was a very foul name; God forgive
me for what I said! But I was determined that it _should_ be done. In
a second I had picked up the nails and the hammer, and--tap! tap!
tap!--the third gun was safe. 'Run, cat!' I heard the lieutenant call
again. But--tap!--I had the nail started i