The Boy Allies with the Cossacks Part 31

Still holding the broken sword in his right hand, Chester now lapsed from a sense of the tumult, the plunging and shrieking horses, the whir and clash of swords, the thuds of rifle blows, into half consciousness, while the unguided horse turned suddenly and made off in the direction from which he had come.

Meanwhile the Cossacks had been pushing the Austrians back. Hal and Alexis, fighting side by side, were so far unharmed. Right into the midst of the enemy they plunged, and for several minutes could see nothing but flying swords and lances. Then, at a signal, the Austrians turned and fled.

Hal turned to speak to Chester, but the latter was not there. In alarm, he called Alexis' attention to the fact that Chester was missing.

Quickly Alexis ordered a halt and looked around. Bodies strewed the road, and leaping from their horses, the two investigated. Chester was not there.

"Great Scott!" exclaimed Hal. "What can have happened to him?"

Alexis questioned his men. One remembered that a great black charger had dashed through the troop in the midst of the battle and had fled to the rear. He remembered that a form was upon the animal's back.

"It must have been Chester," said Hal to Alexis. "Do you go on in pursuit of the Austrians, and I will go back and see if I can find him."

"Good," said Alexis. "The horse probably will run back to the main column. You should not have much trouble finding him."

With a word of command Alexis ordered the troop ahead, and Hal started back on the trail of his chum.

When Chester was again aware of things he was still clasping the horse's neck and was being borne along he knew not whither. His head ached and his left leg pained him greatly. He was dizzy and too weak to raise himself from his position. He could not hear any sound of fighting. He tried to sit up and look around, but this added to his pain, so he fell forward on the neck of his horse again.

Suddenly the horse stopped.

Once more Chester tried to sit up. This time he was successful, and in spite of the pain glanced about him. The horse had halted near a little house, set back some fifty feet from the road, and even as he looked up a woman came from the doorway. She started in astonishment at the sight of the horse and its wounded rider, and hastened back into the house.

She reappeared in a moment, however, accompanied by a second woman, the latter armed with a huge revolver.

The two now approached the lad and lifted him from the horse. They supported him as he dragged himself into the house, and dropped weakly into a chair. Then the women stepped back and pointed the revolver at him.

"You shall remain here," she said, "until I can turn you over to the Austrians."

Chester was somewhat surprised. By the a.s.sistance given him by the women, he had thought that, after resting up, he would be allowed to rejoin his friends; but the set expression on the woman's face told the lad that she meant what she said.

The second woman approached with water and bandages and soon bound up his wounds. Then the lad was escorted to another room, which looked out upon the road. The woman mounted guard over him with her revolver.

"Some of our troops will be here before long," she told him. "Until then I shall guard you."

All this time Chester retained his hold on the broken sword. Suddenly, down the road, came the sound of a galloping horse. Chester glanced through the window and in a moment he had made out the figure of Hal.

Quickly he stepped to the window, and before his captor could prevent him, shattered the window pane with his broken sword.

"Hal!" he cried at the top of his voice. "Hal! Here I am, wounded and a prisoner!"

The woman hurled herself upon the lad and bore him back out of sight. In his weakened condition he was no match for her. She thrust him back into the chair. He turned his eyes to the window. Hal had pa.s.sed on.

"Great Scott!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Chester. "He didn't hear me!"

But Hal had heard. He recognized the sound of his friend's voice, and realized that he was in trouble of some kind. Likewise he surmised what the trouble was, for he knew that they were in the heart of a hostile country. Therefore, he did not check the speed of his horse at once, but rode some distance further before drawing rein. Then he dismounted and tied his horse to a sapling.

Springing in among the trees, he advanced cautiously toward the house.

Both women, secure in the belief that he had pa.s.sed on, turned to taunt Chester. The latter shut his lips grimly and refused to make a reply.

Suddenly, from the next room, came a tremendous clattering of pots and pans.

Both women jumped to their feet.

"There is someone out there!" cried one of the women excitedly.

With her revolver pointed straight before her she moved softly toward the door. At the same moment Chester realized Hal's ruse and cried:

"Look out, Hal!"

CHAPTER XXII.

AT BAY IN THE Pa.s.s.

When Hal, after creeping into the house through a window, had inadvertently b.u.mped into several pots and pans, knocking them to the floor with a clatter, he drew his revolver and stood stockstill. He heard Chester's cry of warning, and, realizing that an enemy was approaching, he drew a bead upon the doorway.

An arm with a pistol appeared through the opening; there was a flash of fire and a bullet sped past him. He fired quickly in return, and the weapon of his unseen enemy dropped to the floor with a crash, followed by a shrill scream of pain.

"Great Scott, a woman!" cried Hal and leaped forward.

But the woman was more frightened than hurt. Realizing that she was uninjured, as Hal came toward her, she leaped forward and threw her arms about him, pinioning the lad's hand that held his revolver to his side.

At the same moment she cried out to her companion:

"Quick! Pick up the revolver and shoot him while I hold him!"

Hal realized that he was in grave danger and struggled fiercely to free his hands. But his adversary was a very powerful woman, and having gained a secure hold, Hal was unable to free himself.

The woman who had been left to guard Chester, at the command of the other, ran to her aid. Chester, holding to the back of the chair, drew himself to his feet and staggered after her, still clinging to his broken sword.

As the woman stooped to pick up the revolver dropped by the other when Hal's bullet had struck her hand, Chester, in spite of the pain of his wounds, leaped forward. As she arose to her feet and would have fired point-blank at Hal, he knocked the weapon from her hand with a sharp blow of his broken sword.

Then coming quickly to Hal's side he took the lad's revolver from him, and, stepping back, aimed it at the head of the woman with whom his friend was struggling.

"Release him instantly," he ordered, "or I shall fire!"

The woman glanced at him over her shoulder, and smiled tauntingly.

"You wouldn't shoot a woman," she sneered.

"I wouldn't like to," replied Chester, "but if you have not released him and if both of you do not line up against that wall with your hands in the air by the time I count three, I will shoot, just as surely as I stand here. One, two----"

The woman glanced at him. Her eyes must have told her that the lad meant what he said, for, releasing Hal, she stepped quickly back and raised her hands in the air. The second woman followed her example. Chester stepped to Hal's side, and extended the revolver to him.

"Take this quick!" he commanded.

Hal did so, and without another word, Chester suddenly crumpled up in a heap on the floor. He had fainted.

Still covering the women with his revolver, Hal knelt by his friend's side. Then he turned to the woman.