This hut contained two horses, and he rightfully surmised by this that two more Cossacks must be in that vicinity.
Crawling between that hut and the next, he heard a murmur of voices. It came from the last hut of the row. The Cossacks were talking in their own dialect, and what was being said the young American could not make out.
Feeling the second hut must be vacant, Gilbert slipped into this. He had his pistol in his hand, and his sword where he could bring it into play at a moment’s notice.
The murmur of voices now came clearer, and presently Gilbert heard another voice. Much to his amazement this last voice was speaking in English!
“I don’t understand such jargon,” was what was said. “Can’t you talk United States?”
“Ben Russell, as sure as fate,” said Gilbert to himself. “Now how in creation did he get here?”
There could be but one answer to this question—Ben had been captured, just as he had before feared. More than likely the men of his detachment were also prisoners, or else shot down.
“I must save Ben, no matter at what cost,” Gilbert told himself. The idea of deserting his old chum never once entered his head.
Watching his opportunity, the young captain left the hut he had entered, and slipped to the rear of that in which were the Cossacks and their prisoner. Gazing through a slit Gilbert saw Ben, with his hands tied behind him, sitting on a small bench, while before him, with sabers drawn, stood two burly cavalrymen. Their faces were dark and forbidding, and they looked as if they considered that the American had no rights which they were bound to respect. As a matter of fact, it enraged them greatly to learn that an American would dare throw in his fortunes with those fighting under the Mikado’s flag.
From where he stood, Gilbert could have fired point-blank at the Cossacks and likely killed the pair on the spot. But he had no desire to shed blood in such a reckless fashion, even though his chum was a prisoner. He determined to watch for a favorable opportunity when he might dash in and give Ben his freedom.