A personal friend of his own had been appointed commandant of Berislav, and the late deputy commandant had been sent to join his regiment in the Crimea.  The countess and his daughters were well, and Olga was studying English.  He said that when the war was over he intended with his family to make a tour through the capitals of Europe, and hoped that they should see Jack in England.  This was very welcome news, and Jack returned to the naval camp at the front in high glee.

One morning a lieutenant named Myers, asked Jack if he would like to accompany him on a reconnaissance, which he heard that a party of the Sardinian cavalry were going to push some little distance up the Baida Valley.  Jack said that he would like it very much if he could borrow a pony.  Mr. Myers said that he could manage this for him, and at once went and obtained the loan of a pony from another officer who was just going down into the battery.  A quarter of an hour afterwards, having taken the precaution to put some biscuits and cold meat into their haversacks, and to fill their flasks with rum and water, they started and rode across the plain to the Sardinian camp.

The lieutenant had obtained the news of the proposed reconnaissance from an officer with whom he was acquainted on the Sardinian staff.  The news, however, had been kept secret, as upon previous occasions so many officers off duty had accompanied these reconnaissances as to constitute an inconvenience.  On the present occasion the secret had been so well kept that only some four or five pleasure-seekers had assembled when the column, consisting of 400 cavalry, started.

Jack, accustomed only to the flat plains of southern and western Russia, was delighted with the beauty of the valley through which they now rode.  It was beautifully wooded, and here and there Tartar villages nestled among the trees.  These had long since been deserted by the inhabitants, and had been looted by successive parties of friends and foes, of everything portable.

Presently they turned out of the valley they had first passed through and followed a road over a slope into another valley, similar to the first.  For an hour they rode on, and then some distance ahead of the column they heard the report of a shot.

“The Cossacks have got sight of us,” Mr. Myers said.  “We shall soon learn if the Russians have any troops in the neighborhood.”

Presently a scattered fire was opened from the walls of a country house, standing embowered in trees on an eminence near what appeared to be the mouth of the valley.  The officer in command of the party dismounted one of the squadrons, and sent the men up in skirmishing order against the house.  Two other squadrons trotted down the valley, and the rest remained in reserve.  A sharp musketry conflict went on for a short time around the chateau.  Then the Sardinians made a rush, and their shouts of triumph and the cessation of musketry proclaimed their victory.