They had made many miles before morning, and as they had retained their sheepskin cloaks, which had been served out to many of the troops, they were able to get a comfortable sleep under shelter of a protecting wall.  Five days’ walking took them to Odessa.  This town was not upon the direct road, but they still clung to the hope of getting away by sea.

On the journey they had met several bodies of troops and many convoys of provisions and stores.  Whenever they observed the former to be approaching, they left the road, and sheltered themselves behind bushes or inequalities of the ground at a distance from the road, as they knew they would be liable to be questioned as to the state of things at the front.  They did not, however, go out of their way for convoys, as they passed these with short salutations in reply to the greetings or pitying remarks from the drivers.  Their Russian was good enough to pass muster when confined to short sentences of a formal kind.  Their hearts beat when, on passing over a rise, they saw the blue water stretching out far before them, and they again debated the possibility of seizing a boat.  But the sight of two gun-boats steaming slowly along the shore convinced them that the attempt would be an extremely dangerous one.

Odessa is not a fortress, and the boys consequently entered it unquestioned.  The town was crowded with wounded and sick soldiers, and their appearance attracted no attention whatever.  In the principal streets the lads saw many names of English firms over offices, and the majority of the shops appeared to be kept by Frenchmen and Germans.  They walked down to the wharves and saw how great must have been the trade carried on before the war.  Now all traffic and business was at an end.

The great foreign merchants interested in the corn trade had all left, and many of the shops were closed.

The harbor was deserted, save that a score or two of brigs employed in the coasting-trade, in the Black Sea lay moored by the wharves with hatches battened down and deserted decks.  A little farther out lay at anchor two or three frigates and some gun-boats.  Looking seaward, not a single sail broke the line of the horizon.

Returning into the town, they went up some small streets, entered a small eating-house, and asked for food, for the stock with which they had started four days before had been exhausted the previous evening.  The landlord served them, and as they were eating he entered into conversation with them.

“I suppose you have leave out of hospital for the day?”

“No,” Dick said, “my comrade and I have got leave to go home to Poland till our wounds are cured.”

“Oh,” the landlord said.  “You are Poles.  I thought you did not look quite like our men; but you speak Russian well for Poles.  There is a regiment of your countrymen in the town now, and some of them come in sometimes for a glass of brandy.  They like it better than vodka; curious, isn’t it?  Your true Russian thinks that there’s nothing better than vodka.”