“Those Cossacks are going to hem us in, if they can,” he thought. “This is a mess truly.”
With his glasses he mounted another hill, at the same time ordering his men to move on as before. He knew he could trust Satmo to conduct the expedition back into the valley, and he wanted to learn, if possible, just how many of the Russian cavalry were in that vicinity.
The way the top of the hill was around a rocky cliff,—that already mentioned. The trail here was rather dangerous, for the cliff was on one side and a deep ravine on the other. To make his way up to the top of the hill quicker, Gilbert dropped part of his outfit in a convenient place.
In five minutes more the young American had secured a position where he could see almost as well as from the mountain top behind him. But, to his chagrin, all of the Cossacks had disappeared, nor could he find the least trace of them.
“Perhaps they have discovered we are watching them,” he reasoned. “I hope they fall back. It will give us a chance to do likewise.”
Having satisfied himself that nothing could be gained by remaining at the top of the hill, the young officer picked his way back to the trail at the point where it wound round the cliff.
Scarcely had Gilbert reached the trail when he heard a wild clatter of hoofs coming toward him. He stopped in surprise, wondering if any of the Russian cavalrymen were coming that way.
“Perhaps I’d better get out of sight,” he thought, but ere he could put his plan into execution he saw the cause of the disturbance. Some pack-horses belonging to their own train had run away, and were coming toward him at a furious pace.
Had the trail been wider the young American could have avoided the horses easily. But the foremost was heavily loaded with boxes, and took up the entire trail. Behind the first came a second runaway, the latter having a rope attached to it. A coolie had hold of the end of the rope, and was yelling loudly in an endeavor to stop both horses.
Gilbert saw his peril and wondered what he had best do to save himself. The runaways were bounding forward at a furious pace, and he realized that it was out of the question to turn back and outstrip them, or climb up the cliff before him.