Gavril muttered a word or two of surly thanks, and went out to see to the horse, while Stepan set about making the coffee.
"Oh, Stepan," whispered Bert, "now Red-scar has come home there is no chance of our getting away."
"It does seem hard!" said Alf. "Just when we had settled it all so nicely too."
Stepan looked up with something very like a smile on his swarthy face.
"Be not down-hearted, my children," he said. "I think we will give Gavril the slip yet."
[CHAPTER VI.]
RED-SCAR GOES TO SLEEP—ALF AND BERT ESCAPE WITH THE PONY.
STEPAN would not suffer Alf and Bert to ask any questions; but they felt that he had a definite purpose and plan, and hope began to rise again in their poor little hearts. Quietly they lay in bed, watching him. They saw him put fresh wood on the fire, and water to boil. They saw him get the canister of coffee and measure out a liberal quantity.
And then they saw something else which set them wondering. Into a tiny saucepan containing only a little water, he emptied a small paper bag of faded-looking green things like round dried pods. He put a cover on the saucepan and set it to boil. Then when he had made the coffee, straining it through a bag, he poured through the bag also the decoction he had prepared in the small saucepan and mixed it with the coffee.
It was just ready, and the small saucepan rinsed out and put away, when Gavril came in.