"We'll get alongside that wall," whispered Phil, pulling Tony's sleeve in the direction he meant. "It is not a long one, and by crawling to the end and squeezing against it, we ought to be able to see our gentleman without ourselves being observed." Accordingly they crept to the wall, which surrounded a potato field, and advancing cautiously were soon at the corner, where, lying side by side, they searched the darkness for the Cossack horseman. "Can't see him anywhere," muttered Phil in an undertone. "Here, what's that?" asked Tony excitedly, pointing in front of him. Before Phil had time to answer, there was a hoarse cry of astonishment, and a figure which had been leaning upon the wall just round the corner started out, and, lowering a lance, rushed at them. The weapon struck the ground between them, narrowly missing Phil's arm. Next moment Tony had sprung at the Cossack with a low cry, and had felled him to the ground with a powerful blow from his fist. "Didn't I say I'd do for yer if yer winked yer blessed eye?" he said breathlessly. "Move again and I'll stick yer through with the lance." But even if the Russian had been able to understand, he was not in the condition which would allow him to prove offensive, for the fist had crashed like a sledge-hammer into his face, and he now lay motionless and stunned upon the ground. Phil picked up the lance, and while they lay still, in case the slight noise should have aroused the next outpost he produced his knife and commenced to cut it in half. It was soon done, and, keeping the head armed with the spear-point, he handed the other to Tony, and they once more rose to their knees and crept stealthily away into the darkness. Ten minutes later they were walking briskly in the direction of Sebastopol. CHAPTER THIRTEEN. THE HIGHROAD TO LIBERTY. When they had placed half a mile or more between themselves and the Russian outposts, Phil caught Tony by the sleeve and came to a halt. "We'll have a breather and a consultation now, old chap," he said with a cheery note in his voice. "We're safely through so far, but there's a lot to be done before we reach our comrades. It was bad luck our hitting up against that fellow, for when the outposts are relieved at midnight he will be found, and our flight discovered. So we may take it that we have barely an hour's start." "It were bad luck," agreed Tony, "but I don't see as though it weren't worser for him. We hit up against the beggar, but I can tell yer the knock he give us wasn't nothing to the smasher I got in on his face. It fairly knocked the senses out of him, and will teach him to mind his own business in future."