The Don chieftain, a little to the rear and apart from the other horsemen, gravely inclined his head, when convinced by the uniform that the speaker was a fellow countryman.
Strogoff, too, had once seen the noted free lancer at the staff headquarters of Duke Nicholas, and he followed the lead of his comrade in proclaiming the name.
He then stepped forward to address the Cossack leader, telling him in a torrent of words how and why he had come to grief as a lost man in these frozen steppes.
Filimonoff shook his head. “None of this company,” he gravely advised, “has seen those whom you seek. It may have been Nikita, who rode this way, I am told, not long since. But I did not meet him, and I do not know that he had prisoners.”
Out of the chief’s address the boys singled the word “Nikita.”
“Tell him,” requested Billy, looking to Strogoff, “that Nikita took us into the brotherhood.”
The sergeant turned a gaze of anxiety upon the young aviator, as if in fear that his mind had been affected by overstrain.
“Tell him,” repeated the boy, in form of earnest demand.
Strogoff then complied, but in apologetic manner.
If the big policeman had any further doubt of the propriety of his statement as interpreter it did not stay with him long.