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Grigosie gave the cloak to the man. "Theodor, see that this is returned to Captain Ward at the British Embassy. Send it by a trusted messenger, and let him say that he had it from Captain Desmond Ellerey to-night, an hour before midnight mark the time when he met him in the Konigplatz. Good-night." The man bowed low as he opened the door for them.
Grigosie did not take his eyes from the three men. He stood in a careless attitude, one hand resting on his hip, the other thrust into his breast, and his fingers were upon a revolver. No gesture of the men escaped him, and long before they came to a standstill in front of Ellerey he had learned their features thoroughly.
Stefan, too, started from his leaning position and stood upright in the entrance, looking straight at the boy. "By your leave, I would become the hostage for your safety," said Grigosie. "I asked you to take me with you; now I ask you to give me up." "Plague upon you, lad, you almost anger me. You are beyond my understanding," was Ellerey's answer, but he still looked fixedly at him.
Ellerey's eyes were fixed on the point in the pass round which the soldiers had disappeared, and for some minutes he did not speak. "What is done must remain as it is," he said at last. "We have only ourselves to consider now. We must watch two and two, one on the plateau, one at the path. Anton and you, Stefan; Grigosie and I. It's short rations for us and careful use of cartridges.
When it had closed upon them Grigosie turned to Ellerey. "Are you satisfied, Captain?" The boy's knowledge astonished Ellerey. "You have reproved me twice to-night, youngster; first for being a bully, now for doubting you." "My anger is forgotten," laughed the lad. "The cloak was a good thought.
"I don't think death is coming to us this time," replied Ellerey. The boy did not answer. Several times during those watching hours Ellerey went to the head of the path, but Grigosie never spoke, never turned to him. His thoughts and superstitions occupied him; and with the light of day Ellerey noticed that there was something in his face which was new. He had changed during the night.
As soon as the work was accomplished Grigosie turned away, and Stefan, wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand, looked with unutterable fierceness at Anton. "You you " And then he burst out with a mighty oath. "There's no word in devil's or man's vocabulary to call you by. You're to thank for this. Weren't you ordered to keep guard by the barrier yonder?"
Do not kill, lame them; their companions may stop to help them." Ellerey counted the twelve paces aloud, and then they both turned. Four shots rang out sharply, and three of the foremost runners stumbled and fell. An answering bullet cut through Ellerey's coat sleeve, and there was the pain as of a hot skewer laid for a moment on his flesh as he and Grigosie ran on again.
"Wisdom, youngster the ripe wisdom of experience." "I wonder whether the Captain is of your way of thinking, Stefan." "I have seen him pause in the midst of his drink sometimes, which has made me anxious." "The fetters of the Court, perhaps," said Grigosie. "Seemed to me it was more like a woman," was the answer. That night they encamped between two spurs of the lower hills.
"Pass us out through the garden and ask no questions," said Grigosie. "Who have we here?" asked the man, pointing to Ellerey. "Neither ask questions nor answer any," Grigosie returned. "That's too pert a tongue to satisfy me," growled the man. "Signs and passwords are easily stolen. I'd sooner let some one bear witness with me after last night." In an instant the lad was beside him.
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