station-house about half-way up. Well, the frontier line runs close ahead of that;" and he pointed to the spot. "Hullo! who comes?" he added a minute later, as we turned a bend of the road and came upon two or three horse-soldiers.
We were riding at a brisk canter, and did not rein up until they challenged us. Seeing Zoiloff's uniform they saluted him, but the leader turned to me and asked for my permit.
"I am on special service," I said quietly, producing the permit. He read it, returned it to me, drew back for us to proceed, and we cantered on without having wasted a minute.
"You had your wits about you when you got that paper," said Zoiloff, laughing. "If those fellows had only known what that special service was, we should have had a brush with them. Let's hope that those at the barrier will be as easily satisfied."
"It's a nasty-looking road," said I, when we reached the foot of the long tortuous hill. "We'd better spare the cattle in case of a bother," and we pulled up to a walking pace. I scanned the station-house closely as we came in sight of it.
"I wish to Heaven it was night. We could steal up that path there," said Zoiloff, pointing to the right of the road. "That's how Markov managed it. It leads out again about twenty or thirty yards on this side of the station-house yonder, and we rattled through at a gallop."
"How many men are stationed there, do you think?"
"I couldn't see more than half-a-dozen or so all told this morning when I passed, and I stopped intentionally and chatted with the officer in command. But in a narrow place like this six men can do a lot."
