Sharp ringing volleys, heavy irregular firing, the fierce, wild shouts of the insurgents, and occasionally the hoarse hurrah of Russian soldiery.
Presently the sounds grew fainter, and the lads judged by the direction that the Russian column was falling back in retreat.

Ere long the sounds of firing ceased altogether, and in scattered knots of three and four, men came through the wood to the wide open space in which the midshipmen were lying bound.

No attention was paid to them for some time, until a large body of men were collected.

Then the lads were suddenly raised and carried to a large fire which was now-blazing in the centre of the clearing.

Here the gags were taken from their mouths, and the cords unbound, and they saw confronting them a young man evidently by his dress and bearing a person of rank and authority, and, as they judged by the attitude of those standing round, the leader of the insurgent band.
"Where do you come from, and what are you doing here ?" he asked in Polish.
The boys shook their heads in token of their ignorance of the language.
"I thought so," he said angrily in Russian.