Lucky fellows, say I.There are thousands at Sebastopol would be glad to change places with them, even at the cost of their wounds." The sergeant strode to the table at which the lads were sitting, and, drawing a chair up, held out his hands to them.

"Good-day, comrades," he said in Polish.

"So are you on your way home?
Lucky fellows! I would give my stripes to be in your place, if only for a fortnight." Dick for a moment was stupefied, but Jack recalled to mind three sentences which the countess had taught him and which might, she said, prove of use to them, did they happen to come across any insurgent bands in Poland; for vague reports were current, in spite of the efforts of the authorities to repress them, that the Poles were seizing the opportunity of their oppressors being engaged in war, again to take up arms.

The sentences were pass-words of a secret association of which the countess's father had been a member, and which were widely whispered among patriotic Poles.

"The dawn will soon be at hand.