"Very well, my mates. Go in peace, and may the Lord go with
you!"

"But whither?" asked Sashok, leaping to his feet. "To the
town? "

"Whither else?"

The old soldier was the only one not to rise, and with
conviction he remarked:

"It will result but in our getting drowned."

"Then stay where you are."

Ossip glanced around the party. Then he continued:

"Bestir yourselves! Look alive!"

Upon which all crowded together, and Boev, thrusting the tools
into a hole in the bank, groaned:

"The order 'go' has been given, so go we MUST, well though a
man in receipt of such an order might ask himself, 'How is it
going to be done?'"

Ossip seemed, in some way, to have grown younger and more
active, while the habitually shy, though good-humoured,
expression of his countenance was gone from his ruddy features,
and his darkened eyes had assumed an air of stern activity. Nay,