The drivers seemed to have heard these instructions before, for they merely nodded, and made no comment.  One of them gave a low laugh, and that was all.  He appeared to be an old man with a white beard, and had perhaps waited a long time for this moment.  There was a wealth of promise in his curt hilarity.

Then Martin and Kosmaroff turned and rode on towards Warsaw at a trot.  Before long they wheeled to the right, quitting the highway and taking to the quieter Czerniakowska, that wide and deserted road which runs by the river-side, skirting the high land now converted into a public pleasure-ground, under the name of the Lazienki Park.

In the daytime the Czerniakowska is only used by the sand-carts and the workmen going to and from the manufactories.  To-night, in the pouring rain, no one passed that way.

Before the iron-foundry is reached the road narrows somewhat, and is bounded on either side by a high stone wall.  On the left are the lower lands of the Lazienki Park; the yards and storehouses of the iron-foundry are on the right.

At the point where the road narrows Kosmaroff suddenly reined in his horse, and leaning forward, peered into the darkness.  There are no lamps at the farther end of the Czerniakowska.

“What is it?” asked Martin.

“I thought I saw a glint under the wall,” answered Kosmaroff.  “There—­there it is again.  Steel.  There is some one there.  It is the gleam of those distant lights on a bayonet.”

“Then let us go forward,” said Martin, “and see who it is.”

And he urged his horse, which seemed tired, and carried its head low beneath the rain.  They had not gone ten paces when a rough voice called out: 

“Who goes there?”

“Who goes there?” echoed Martin.  “But this is a high-road.”  And he moved nearer to the wall.  The man stepped from the shadow, and his bayonet gleamed again.

“No matter,” he said; “you cannot pass this way.”

“But, my friend—­” began Martin, with a protesting laugh.  But he never finished the sentence, for Kosmaroff had slipped out of the saddle on the far side, and interrupted him by pushing the bridle into his hand.  Then the ex-Cossack ran round at the back of the horses.

The soldier gave a sharp exclamation of surprise, and the next moment his rifle rattled down against the wall.  Both men were on the ground now in the water and the mud.  There came to Martin’s ears the sound of hard breathing, and some muttered words of anger; then a sharp cough, which was not Kosmaroff’s cough.

After an instant of dead silence, Kosmaroff rose to his feet.

“First blood,” he said, breathlessly.  He went to his horse and wiped his hands upon its mane.

“Bah!” he exclaimed, “how he smelled of bad cigarettes!”

Martin was leaning in the saddle, looking down at the dark form in the mud.

“Oh, he is dead enough,” said Kosmaroff.  “I broke his neck.  Did you not hear it go?”