Jack duly got his leave and went away with Captain Jolly, and Jim busied himself, as well as the authorities would let him, in providing for the reception of the men and horses of the Light Brigade on the hill-side above Balaclava Bay. A slow, dull time, wearing on body, mind, and spirit--and yet, not the worst time possible. CHAPTER LVII HOT OVENS Jack was back, in the best of health and spirits. "I'm almost sorry I didn't join the navy," he said, as he trudged with Jim through the mud to the Picket House, to see how things had gone on in his absence. "They do keep things clean, anyway." "That's the only place where they have any fun nowadays," he said, as they stood looking down on the lines and zigzags, creeping nearer and nearer to the town, and pointed to a deep gully which ran up from the head of the Admiralty Harbour and separated the British position from the French. "The Ovens," said Jim. "Couldn't we go down some night and see some of it?" "Any night you like when I'm not on duty." "Why not to-night? You won't start work till to-morrow, I suppose." "All right! To-night! The 50th are down there, and there are some capital fellows among them." And that was how it happened that, for the sake of a little fun, or, in other, words, the chance of a brush with the enemy, the boys found themselves that night stumbling along the deep trench which zigzaged down from Chapman's Battery towards the Green Hills and so into the deep gully which ran up into the plateau from the head of Admiralty Harbour in Sebastopol. The sides of the gully contained numerous caves formed by the decay of the softer strata in the rocks, and these caves had for some time past been the stakes for which small parties on each side played sharp little war-games, and paid at times with their lives. First they were Russian, then they were British, then again Russian, till the 50th had ousted them and remained in possession. It was a bitterly cold night, but the boys, In the great fur coats Jim had bought out of the loot at Mackenzie's Farm, had nothing to complain of. They found a strong picket of the 50th making themselves very much at home in the Ovens, and received a warm welcome from the officers in charge. "Any chance of any fun to-night?" asked Jack. "We can never tell what's going to happen. Keeps us on the jig the whole time, but it's better than doing nothing upstairs." "And it comes off sometimes," said another. "And when it does, the Ovens get hot," laughed a third, and they squatted on the floor and discussed zigzags and such matters. "Almost took you for Russians in those big coats," said one enviously. "Did you steal 'em?" "Somebody else 'stole 'em," laughed Jack. "We're only receivers. Jim bought them that day at Mackenzie's, when Menchikoff bolted and left us his baggage."