“The next thing,” asserted the practical Billy, “is to pass you the trinkets, for we never know when the call will come to pull out for another station. Keep a happy thought, old man, until we see you again.”
With these parting words the lads sauntered back toward the fort, with a studied air of careless unconcern.
All the time they were figuring on the quickest way to get to the earthwork where Stanislaws’ treasure was concealed.
CHAPTER IX.
AN UNEXPECTED ORDER.
Within the fortress enclosure the boys took their bearings from memory and soon stood in the shadow of the west wall, in the location described by Stanislaws. They could see a sentry moving with measured tread on the narrow walk above them, and waited until he passed beyond the turret in the first turn of the circular parapet.
Billy led the way in setting foot on the elevation, with Henri close at his heels. In quick step they were within the angles of the bastion, and Billy took a peep along the wall to see if the sentinel had commenced his backward beat. But the guard was taking it leisurely, for no armed foe was known to be lurking without, and the duty of patrol this evening was a matter of military form.
Henri in the meantime had been casting about for the loose stone marked by the cross-shaped powder burn.
He had evidently found it, for Billy heard a whispered request for the loan of his knife.
Inserting the blade in the thin line where the mortar had crumbled, Henri dexterously twisted the stone out of its socket.
“It is here all right,” he said, holding up the belt for the inspection of his chum.