“That’s the last time I want to come face to face with a leopard,” he told himself as he surveyed the dead creature. “I came out here to fight Russians, not wild animals.”
Leaving the leopard where it was, he continued to make his way as best he could toward the cliff. But the tangle of brushwood appeared as dense at one point as another, and finally he did not know which way to turn.
“I’m in a pickle!” he groaned, half aloud. “And how to get out is a mystery.”
Finding he could not get close to the cliff, he determined to pursue a course in the opposite direction, hoping thereby to gain another trail over the hills which would take him, sooner or later, to the main road where he had left Major Okopa’s command.
Five minutes later he found a narrow trail, which led to the northward. He followed up this trail for nearly half a mile, when he came within sight of several native huts. Nobody was around the huts, and they looked to be deserted.
“The natives must have been scared off by the war,” he thought, when from one of the huts came a Cossack cavalryman. The Cossack moved to another hut, and from this brought forth a horse, which he proceeded to mount. Soon he was out of sight down the trail.
The unexpected appearance of the enemy, so close at hand, perplexed Gilbert and he knew not what to do next. Then he decided to make an investigation of all the huts and see if any more Cossacks were around.
“I’d like to bag some of those fellows,” he reasoned, and moved forward through some brushwood, never dreaming of the surprise in store for him.
CHAPTER XIX
GILBERT MAKES A PRISONER
One of the Korean huts was close to some bushes beside the trail, and the young captain had but little difficulty in approaching it without laying himself liable to being seen by any others of the enemy who might be near at hand.