orders, but
there was a hurt look in his eyes. However, he did not protest, and when
his three friends finally walked away, he stood looking after them
regretfully, although making no attempt to follow.

"The first thing," said Hal, "is to procure three good horses."

"Yes," agreed Alexis, "and another to carry food."

"No," answered Hal. "We cannot be bothered with that. We shall have to
live off the country."

Alexis made no objection, though it was plain to both lads that the
Cossack would have rather made due preparations to care for the inner
man. Three strong, wiry Cossack horses having been placed at their
command, the three leaped into the saddles and set off through the
streets of Lodz at a slow trot.

Darkness was falling when they came to the outskirts of the city, and
turned their heads toward the southwest. As far as Cracow the roads were
held by Russian troops in force, and the three travelers experienced no
difficulties. They did not go close to the beleaguered city, but bore
off a bit to the north, just skirting the great Russian army before the
Galician stronghold.

Three days and nights they traveled without incident. Their food they
purchased at little towns through which they passed, or at farmhouses;
and they slept wherever they happened to be when night overtook them.
But now that they were drawing close to the Carpathians, Hal decided
that the order of things must be reversed.

"In the future we shall travel at night," he said. "We'll do our
sleeping in the daytime."

This plan was approved by both Chester and Alexis, so that the morning
of the fourth day found them approaching the long line of mountains.

The Carpathian mountains encircle Hungary on three sides, separating it
from Germany on the northwest, from Galicia on the northeast and from
Turkey on the southeast. At the southern extremity of the range, a
branch proceeds in a southerly direction across the Danube to the center
of European Turkey, connecting the Carpathian mountains with the great
eastern branch of the Alps.

It can readily be seen, therefore, that the Carpathians are much like
the Alps--made up of rugged peaks between which are narrow passes. These
passes furnish the only means of getting across the mountains.

In their search for Brunnoi, the boys and Alexis were now approaching
that part of the mountains which separates Hungary from Galicia, and
through which there are but three passes; so that their travelin