CHAPTER XXI.ACROSS THE SNOW.
General Surgoff’s head was turned toward where Boris and several Russian guards were struggling when Jack sprang upon his back like a cat. The general sent out a cry for help, but Jack cut it short as his hands closed about his opponent’s throat.
Still retaining his grasp with his left hand, Jack’s right dropped to the officer’s belt. A revolver was quickly drawn and the lad stuffed it into his pocket. Then he seized the second revolver, shoved the Russian officer violently from him and dashed toward the sleighs.
There was a cry from behind and several rifles were brought to bear, but, even as Jack had expected, General Surgoff cried at the top of his voice:
“Take him alive! Death to the man who injures him!”
Jack shouted aloud as he continued to run toward the row of sleighs. Turning his head, he looked over his shoulder and saw that Boris too had eluded the men with whom he had been struggling and was running after him.
“Come on, Boris!” he cried, but Boris needed no urging and his feet seemed to fly over the ground. For a man of his size his speed was nothing short of remarkable.
Jack reached the row of sleighs well in advance of Boris. Of these conveyances there were four in all. Jack slapped the horses attached to three of the sleighs sharply and they dashed off. The fourth would have followed, but Jack leaped in, seized the reins and checked the animals. Then he waited calmly for Boris, who came rapidly toward him.
Jack still held one of General Surgoff’s revolvers in his right hand, his left being sufficient to hold tight the reins. The lad saw one of the Russian guards stop in his tracks, throw his rifle to his shoulder and take aim at Boris.
Gripping the reins tighter with his left hand, the lad raised his revolver and fired quickly. The man who was aiming at Boris fell to the ground. Panting loudly, Boris now reached the sleigh and jumped in. Immediately Jack fired his revolver over his horses’ heads and shook the reins over their backs.
“Giddap!” he shouted.
It is extremely doubtful if the animals understood Jack, but the reins slapping on their backs and the nearness of the revolver shot did the work. The animals dashed off with a jump.
Now from behind came the command Jack had been expecting. General Surgoff, seeing his victims about to make their escape from beneath his very eyes, shouted:
“Shoot!”
A volley of rifle bullets flew overhead and all about them. But none struck home and the horses continued their mad dash. A second and a third volley came with no better result.
“The fools!” muttered Jack. “Why don’t they shoot one of the horses.”
Apparently the guards had not thought of that, for no bullet came near the flying animals. Stooping low in the sleigh, Jack and Boris heard the whine of the bullets as they sped past. Several struck the back of the sleigh and were imbedded in the wooden seat.
But at last the flying horses drew the two fugitives out of range, whereupon Jack immediately checked their pace.
“No use wasting horseflesh unnecessarily,” he said to Boris.
“Not a bit,” was the rejoinder. “Say, that was a bit of quick work, wasn’t it?”
“It was,” agreed Jack.
“But what did you shoot at me for?” demanded the Russian.
“Shoot at you?” exclaimed Jack in surprise. “I didn’t shoot at you.”
“Why, you pointed your revolver right at me.” “Oh, no I didn’t,” said Jack. “I was shooting over your head. One of the guards had drawn a bead on you with his rifle.”
“And did you get him?”
“I did; else you wouldn’t be here now.”
“Thanks,” said the big Russian. “I hope I am able to repay the debt some day.”
“It was nothing,” declared Jack. “Now, if we only knew where we were going, it would be all right.”
“There is no place to go, so far as I know,” said Boris. “All you wanted to do when you started, if you will remember, was to get away where there would be no more lashings. We are away now, so what more can you ask?”
“You mean that we will just wander around until we die of cold or starvation?” asked Jack.
“Exactly.”
“Well, we won’t,” said Jack. “We’ll go along with some definite object in view. Now, which way would you take the railroad to be?”
Boris swung an arm in a southerly direction.
“Off there—some place,” he said.
“Good; then we’ll head that way,” and Jack swung the horses in the direction indicated.
“But there is no chance of reaching the railroad,” protested Boris.
“There is always a chance,” said Jack calmly. “Always a fighting chance so long as one has breath in his body. It is better to be moving toward a definite objective than to lie idle and wait for death.”
“Well, I guess you are right there,” said Boris. “But after we reach the railroad—if we do reach it—then what? If we are picked up we will probably be sent right back where we came from.”
“We won’t cross that bridge until we come to it,” returned Jack quietly. “Our first consideration is to reach the railroad.”
“If we could be so fortunate as to strike a road,” said Boris, “we might have a chance; but to go driving through the snow like this, blindly, we have no hope of getting there.”
“Do you suppose these horses have been over the road often enough to pick it out themselves?” asked Jack.
“I don’t know; you might try them.”
Jack gave the animals their head. Immediately they slowed down, and then the off horse began to pull toward the right. After some resistance the other followed him.
“He’s going some place,” said Jack hopefully.
“And we are going along,” replied Boris with a grim attempt at humor.
Half a mile ahead, having pulled the sleigh over steep piles of drifted snow, the horses again headed southward. The going was much easier. The ground ahead now showed signs of recent travel.
“By Jove! They have picked the trail,” declared Jack.
“So they have,” said Boris. “Do you know, I am beginning to have hopes that we shall reach the railroad.”
“Of course we shall,” said Jack confidently. “It may be hard work, but we shall reach there.”
“And then?” demanded Boris.
Again Jack shrugged his shoulders.
“Who knows?” he muttered and gave his undivided attention to the road that stretched out ahead.
All day they drove slowly along, for they did not wish to tire the horses more than was necessary. It was bitterly cold, but the two travelers had been fortunate enough to find heavy rugs in the sleigh, and these kept them quite comfortable. Also Jack had come upon one pair of gloves. These had to do for both, so the one kept his ungloved hands beneath the robes while the other did the driving.
It grew dusk.
Jack, glancing back down the road, saw a moving object coming after them. It looked like a dog and the lad called Boris’ attention to the form loping along behind them, apparently content to remain at the same relative distance.
Boris took one look at the following form and cried out:
“A wolf!”
“Wolf!” cried Jack. “I thought it was a dog. Oh, well, no matter. We can certainly take care of a lone wolf.”
“So we can,” said Boris dryly. “The trouble is that by an hour after dark it won’t be a lone wolf. There will be wolves by the score upon our track.”
“But can’t we outrun them?” asked Jack fearfully.
“We might, if our horses were fresh. But you must remember we have traveled all day.”
“Then we shall have to fight,” declared Jack quietly.
“Of course,” said Boris briefly. “But with our hands we can do little.”
Jack produced Surgoff’s revolvers and passed one of them to Boris.
“These will help a little,” he said.
“A little, but not much,” said Boris with a shake of his head. “A few wolves shot down and there will still be more.”
He glanced over his shoulder again.
“Look!” he exclaimed. “There is another!”
Jack looked back and his heart beat more fast as he saw that the first loping gray figure had been joined by a second and that they came forward rapidly.
“There will be more of them directly,” said Boris calmly.
“Well, we have wasted time enough,” declared Jack at this point. “Before the pack assembles, I believe it would be well for us to whip up and put as much distance between us and the wolves as possible.”
“We won’t be able to put much,” said Boris pessimistically. “The faster we go the faster they will go, until the pack has closed in, and then they will come to the attack.”
“Can you shoot?” asked Jack suddenly.
“Like a flash,” was the reply. “I can hit anything that can be hit. Why?”
“Then you do the shooting and I’ll do the driving,” said Jack. “Here, you take both these guns. Give me the reins and the whip.”
The exchange was made, and Jack touched the backs of the horses lightly with the whip.
“If we were only near to a human habitation of some kind,” he muttered to Boris.
“Well, we may and we may not be,” was the reply. “But these fellows will follow us right to the edge of the city. It’s been a hard winter and they are hungry. Hear them howl?”
It was a blood-curdling sound that Jack heard then. It sent a shiver down his spine.
“It’s the call of the pack,” said Boris briefly. “They’ll be down on us in a moment. See, in the darkness back there now there are fully a score.”
For answer Jack got up to his feet and the long whip whistled through the air and over the horses’ necks. But the animals, too, had caught the scent of the wolves, and they needed no urging. They dashed forward. And at that moment Boris, glancing back, shouted:
“Here they come!”