"Look, Tony!" exclaimed Phil a few minutes later, having calmed down sufficiently to be able to make a good examination of the Russian position, "those beggars have chosen a splendid spot on which to manoeuvre. You can see them massed on the slope of the hill close upon the other side of the river, and to reach them we must cross the open and plunge through the water. That makes it pretty well impossible for our cavalry to help us by a flank attack. But we'll go for them tooth and nail, in the regular old bull-dog way, and if we don't rout them out of their position, well, I'll--I'll never speak to you again." "Yer won't, won't yer?" answered Tony, with a curious grin, staring at his friend with no small amount of astonishment. "Young 'un, I never see yer so wound up afore. I never thought yer was that bloodthirsty. Me and all yer mates took yer for one of them quiet kind of coves what takes a lot of rousing. But now--blow me--I can see yer monkey's up, and I'll have to keep an eye on yer, else yer'll be trying to fight the whole of them Russian coves alone." Then, having smiled once more at Phil, the honest fellow's face suddenly assumed a sterner look, his eyes glistened and his cheeks flushed, while he hurriedly fumbled at the fastening of his ammunition-pouch. "Beat 'em, Phil, old boy! in course we will. If the Grenadier Guards don't find their way to the top of that there hill, and take every one of them big guns yer see, it'll be because there ain't none of 'em left to do it. We'll manage it or die on the way." And indeed, to look at the disposition of the Russian troops and guns made by General Menschikoff, there was every possibility that before they were forced to retire many a gallant British and French soldier would be laid low upon the grass. In front of the Allies stretched the river Alma, forming a sharp bend, the apex of which was opposite the division between French and English troops, and pointed towards the Russians. In the bend was the village of Bourliouk, soon to be the scene of sharp skirmishing, and on the right a road crossed the river and ascended the opposite bank, which at that point sloped easily towards a conical hill known as Telegraph Hill. To the right of this road, and exactly facing the French and Turkish troops, there was a steep cliff on the other side of the river. Up this, however, two roads ran, one of which was available for guns.