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Updated: April 30, 2025
As they did so, Captain Ritzer had gone up on deck and returned with a coil of thin rope that he had cut off. With this they tied the men securely. "There is no occasion to gag them, I think," Fergus said. "They might shout as loud as they liked and, with this wind blowing, no one would hear them; or if anyone did hear them, he would take it for the shouting of a drunken man.
"You are with Stauffen and Ritzer, are you not, major?" the latter said. "I have a brother in the same regiment, and so know them. How do you get on with them?" "At present they are rather stiff and distant, and insist upon treating me as the senior officer; which is absurd when we are prisoners, and they are both some fifteen years older than I am. I detest that sort of thing.
"That all seems possible enough, Drummond," Captain Ritzer said; "but what about our uniforms?" "We must leave them behind, and swim in our underclothes. I should say we should take a couple of suits with us. We could make them up into bundles, and carry them on our heads while we swim.
"Captains Stauffen and Ritzer were both ordered here, on their arrival at Berlin; and though I have not met them, I have heard from others of their escape from Linz, which they ascribed entirely to a major of Marshal Keith's staff, who was a fellow prisoner of theirs." For the next three weeks Fergus was on horseback from morning till night. The movements of the troops were incessant.
All we have got to do is to choose a really dark night, with wind and rain. "The first job to be done is to get the heads off these rivets. I have examined them carefully. They are roughly done, and I don't fancy that the iron is very hard; and our knives will, I think, make a comparatively short job of it." "We could not work at night," Ritzer said. "The sentry in front would hear the noise."
"We will go according to rank," Ritzer laughed. "Very well. Now mind, gentlemen, whatever you do, take the water quietly. I will wait until you are both down, then we will follow each other closely, so that we can help one another if necessary. I can hardly see the water from here; and the sentry, being twice as far off from it as we are, will see it less.
"I am afraid that neither of us has imitated your forethought," Ritzer said with a laugh. "I have only my last month's pay in my pocket, and Stauffen is no better off." "Ah, well! With thirty pounds among us, we shall do very well," Fergus said. "We must be careful because, if we do make our escape, we shall want money to get disguises."
I shall believe anything you tell me, in future," Ritzer said. "Yes," his companion agreed, "I never believed that we should succeed; though, as you had set your heart on it, I did not like to hang back. But it really did seem to me a wild scheme, altogether. I thought possibly we might get out of the fort, but I believed that your plan of getting disguises would break down altogether.
They now drew up their seats round the stove, and Fergus told them in detail the manner of his escape, omitting only the name of the noblemen at Vienna who had assisted him. "It was excellently done," Ritzer said warmly. "Your making off in that Austrian uniform, at the only moment when such a thing could be done, was certainly a masterly stroke."
I have never heard a single word raised against the honours he has received. "When he rides through the camp men nudge each other and say, 'That young fellow in staff uniform is Major Drummond; and there is not a soldier but tries to put a little extra respect into his salute." "Are you joking, Ronsfeldt?" Ritzer asked in astonishment.
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