"Ah, yes!" she cried quickly. "I am an ingrate! You saved my life,"—and again she seized both my hands and kissed them.
"Hark!" I cried, startled. "What's that?" for I distinctly heard a sound of crackling wood.
The next moment men's gruff voices reached us from above.
"The Cossacks!" she screamed. "They have found us—they have found us!" And the light died out of her beautiful countenance.
In her trembling hand she held the terrible little engine of destruction.
With a quick movement I gripped her wrist, urging her to refrain until all hope was abandoned, and together we stood facing the soldiers as they descended the stairs to where we were. They were, it seems, searching every house.
"Ah!" they cried, "a good hiding-place this! But the wall was hollow, and revealed the door!" and next moment we saw the figures of men.
"Well, my pretty!" exclaimed a big, leering Cossack, chucking the trembling girl beneath the chin.
"Hold!" I commanded the half-dozen men who now stood before us, their swords red with the life-blood of the Revolution. But before I could utter further word the poor girl was wrenched from my grasp, and the Cossack was smothering her face with his hot nauseous kisses.
"Hold, I tell you!" I shouted. "Release her, or it is at your own peril!"