248 FICTION

I can never get to the fortress to-day, but as
soon as it is dawn I will lie up in the forest,
and at night I'll go on again."

All night he went onward. The only people
he met were two mounted Tatars, and as he
saw them at a distance he was able to hide away
from them behind a tree.

The moon had already begun to wane, the
dew was falling, it was close upon dawn, and
still Zhilin had not got to the end of the forest.
"Well," thought he, "just thirty steps more,
and then 111 turn into the forest and sit down."
He took the thirty steps, when he saw that the
forest was coming to an end. He went out to
the very fringe of it. There, quite bright before
him, as if on the palm of his hands, lay the plain
and the fortress, and to the left, quite close
under the mountain-side, camp-fires were burn-
ing and smoking, and people were standing round
the smouldering logs.

He gazed fixedly, and saw Cossacks—soldiers
—and glistening arms.

Zhilm, full of joy, rallied his last remaining
strength and prepared to descend the mountain-
side.

"God grant," thought he, "that a mounted
Tatar may not see me in the open plain. Al-
though Pm pretty near now, Fm not there yet."

And the thought was no sooner in his head,
when behold I on a Httle mound stood three Ta-