CHAPTER XIV.
A WONDERFUL RESCUE.
"Blamed if I oughtn't to be treated for the simples."
Schneider was, indeed, a dejected figure at the foot of the long ladder in this inky well, the only point of light being a porthole sort of window, set high in one of the four stone walls.
"We're all of the same name as chumps," echoed Billy.
The situation certainly had serious aspect to the prisoners. While they had considerable confidence in the trailing ability of Roque, here was a case with about every chance in the world against successful tracing.
An isolated farmhouse, far from the beaten track, not even in present line of military operations, and confinement practically in a granite tomb, from which no wail of distress could possibly be heard outside.
What fate the Cossacks had fixed for them was merely a matter of dreadful surmise.
"Slow starvation," was Henri's unhappy guess.