“Look! What is yonder?”
I looked and saw a ruddy glow in the sky to northward,—a flickering glow, now paling, now flashing up vividly and showing luminous clouds of smoke,—the glow of a great fire.
“That is over Zizscky; it was to-night then, and we are too late!”
We checked instinctively, and the Pavloffs ranged alongside. We four, being better mounted, were well ahead, and the others came straggling in our rear.
“They were to defend the synagogue; we may still be in time to help,” said Pavloff.
“True, we four must push on; these others must follow as they are able, and tell the rest as they meet them. Give Stepán the word, Mishka,” commanded the Duke.
Mishka wheeled his horse and rode back, and we pressed forward, increasing the pace to a gallop. Within an hour we had covered the twenty versts and were on the outskirts of the town. Every instant that awful glow grew brighter, and when we drew near we saw that half the houses in the Jewish quarter were ablaze, while horrible sounds came to us,—the noise of a devils’ orgy, punctuated irregularly by the crackle of rifle shots.
“They are holding the synagogue,” Loris said grimly. “Otherwise the firing would be over by this time.”
The straggling street that formed this end of the town was quiet and deserted, save for a few scared women and children, who were standing in the roadway, and who scurried back to their houses at the first sound of our horses’ hoofs.
“Dismount, and turn the horses loose!” Loris commanded. “We shall find them later, perhaps; if not, well, we shall not!”