"We must find out," was the answer. 

 "Yes, but how?" 

 "I don't know." 

 "There is only one way," continued Bal-Arrêt. 

 "And that is?" 

 "To go over there, and——" 

 "In these uniforms?" observed the young officer.  "We should be shot as soon as we should appear, and questioned afterward." 

 "Yes, if there was anything left to question," growled the grenadier. "The Russians will do some scouting. Perhaps some of them will come here. If so, we will knock them on the head and take their uniforms, wait until nightfall, slip through the lines, find out what we can, and go back and tell the Emperor. It is very simple." 

 "Quite so," laughed the young officer; "if we can catch two Russians, if their uniforms will fit us, if we can get through, if we can find out, if we can get back. Do you speak Russian, Bal-Arrêt?" 

 "Not a word." 

 "Prussian?" 

 "Enough to pass myself through I guess, and——" 

 "Hush," said the young man, as three Russians suddenly appeared out of a little ravine on the edge of the wood. 

 They had come on a foraging expedition, and had been successful, apparently, for, tied to a musket and carried between two of the men was a dead pig. How it had escaped the Cossack raiders of the day before was a mystery. They were apparently coming farther into the forest for firewood with which to roast the animal. Perhaps, as the pig was small, and, as they were doubtless hungry, they did not wish their capture to be widely known. At any rate, they came cautiously up a ravine and had not been noticed until their heads rose above it. They saw the two Frenchmen just about as soon as they were seen. The third man, whose arms were free, immediately presented his piece and pulled the 

 Prev. P 30/217 next