Copyright, 1885, by Beadle & Adams. Entered at Post Office, New York, N.Y.,as second class matter. Sept. 24, 1899,

 

Sas M. J. IVERS & CO. Publisher
M. J. IVERS & C6 Pablishers, Prise (Cents.

379 earl Street, New York.

No. 38; fre Week. (James Sullivan. Proprietor,: $2.50 a Year Vol. Al.

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

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Copyright, 1885, by Beadle & Adams. Entered at Post Office, New York, N.Y.,assecond cla smatter. Sept, 24, 1899. i +
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Published M. J.IVERS & co., Publishers, Price 5 Cents. ¥

0, : E Week. (James Sullivan, Proprietor,) $2.50 a Year, Ol. ae a
PUT C 8379 Pearl Street, New York. ee : (

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The Boy Exiles of Siberia; or, the Watch-Dog of Russia

BY T. C. HARBAUGH.

 

ARSE see

 

 

 

THE CURTAIN OF THE SLEDGE WAS RAISED, AND THE YOUNG NIHILIST SAW A FACE BY THE
LIGHT OF THY COSSACK LANTERN, / ees

 
z The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

 

“The Boy Exiles of Siberia:

The Watch-Dog of Russia.

A Tale of Strange Adventure in the
Land of Snow and Death!

BY T. C. HARBAUGH,
AUTHOR OF ‘'THE SNOW TRAIL,” ETC., ETC.

CHAPTER I.
THE ARREST.

Tux public clocks of St. Petersburg were strik-
ing nine—nine at night—when two boys pre-
pared to separate in the shadow of one of the
columns of the Nicholas Bridge.

‘‘T like your plan, Feodor,” said one. ‘* We
have a right to meet and discuss affairs if our
elders have. You will see Sergius, Gazin and
Ivan to-morrow and post them. The police,
lynx-eyed though they are, will not suspect us,
and what if they do? While menare giving the
ezar trouble, he will not think once of watching
us boys.”

‘“‘T don’t care if he does!” was the prompt and
independent reply. “I am a Nihilist, and I
don’t care how soon Mellikoff knows it so far as
that is concerned. I tell you, Ivan—”

“ Hist! I saw a shadow flit across yon bit of
lamplight.” ;

‘Shadows burt noone, It issubstance that
sends one to Siberia. We will meet to-morrow
wees Ivan.” Feodor had lowered his voice.
** We will organize and assist our people all we
can. You will be there—at seven?”

“Tf Tam not on the road to Tobolsk by that
time,” laughed Ivan Pouschin.

‘‘Of course, that is to be considered. But
goodnight, Ivan. You are going to wait here

‘or some one, [ believe?”

“T agreed to meet Volga here.”

“Success to you.” :

A parting pressure of hands followed, and but
one boy stood in the shadow of the pillar.

It was a night in the last week of October, 1880.
A few flakes of snow were falling lazily trom
the clouds, and the night winds made the soli-
tary youth draw his coat about his neck and
button it closely. Tho ground had been white
for several days, but the snow was not deep.
Winter had not fairly set in, but the winds told
that it was not far away.

‘What if Volga has forgotten the appoint-
ment?” mused Ivan, as the moments flew by.
“T can afford to wait here until after ten, If
she comes I must tell her about the progress we
have made in forming the Order of Ring Rus-
sia, for I promised to. Volgais a warm patriot,
aud I wish she would tell me who she really is,
She’s got gentle blood in her veins, and has been
well educated, for when I ask her if her family
is not wealthy, she puts me off with a laugh,
and tells me to serve Russia with all my might,
That’s what I’m trying to do now.”

Ivan Pouschin belonged te the better class of
Russian boys one meets in certain paris of St.
Petersburg. Hoe had just passed the sixteenth

 

 

 

=
milestone of life, and could boast of a strong
constitution, a clear black eye, and a ruddy
face. H> was well known at the American Le-

ation, where he was often to be found doing

ittle errands for the attaches, and besides earn-
ing a few copecks, he had, with commendable
industry, acquired a speaking knowledge of our
language.

“If Volga hadn't tapped me on the shoulder
the nigh’ I was waiting before the Michael
Theater to see the czar and bis suit come out,
1 wouldn’t be here'waiting for her vow,” con-
tinued Ivan. ‘‘I wonder why she selected me
to hélp her devise a plan for distributing’ the
arate the police are always pe to suppress?

think a good deal of Volga; I—”

Ivan Pouschin paused abruptly, for the sound
of a footstep on the flooring of the bridge had
struck on his ear, and he turned to spring back
from a man whose hand clutched his shoulder
before he could escape.

The light of the nearest lamp showed the boy
the gray overcoat and knobbed cap worn by the
man.

lvan was in the power of a Russian gen-
darme, whose fingers seemed veritable eagle
claws,

“Sasha!” exclaimed the man.
have captured the fish I let swim out of the net
awhile ago. Where does’ your companion
live?” :

““Who do you think I am?” cried Ivan. ‘‘ My
comrade is an honest youth, and you men have
nothing against him. If you want him you
must hunt him. Ivan Pouschin never betrayed
any one.” )

“Tyan Pouschin! That’sthename. Idid not
know but that the one who got away was the
Pouschin boy. Did you ever see our chief?”

“Many a time,” answered Ivan. ‘‘ He some-
times accompanies the czar when his majesty
drives on the Nevski Perspective. Oh, yes, Pve
seen General Meilicoff.” % ‘

‘ You’ve got a good memory, little one,” re-
sponded the agent of the police, with a gruff
laugh. ‘‘The chief wants to see you to-night.
Come along, Ivan Pouschin!” ;

The boy knew that resistance would prove
useless; therefore he did not waste his strength
in a struggle against authority.

“Yam in the hands of the Third Section,”
flashed across his brain. “I heard Gazin say
last night that an arrest by the secret police was
as good as a passport to Siberia.” ;

The gendarme had no trouble in hurrying
Ivan from the spot where the arrest had been
effected. The boy wondered if he would be
compelled to walk all the way to the Depart-
ment of Justice which was not very near the
Nicholas Bridge, but all at once the officer hailed
a mysterious looking sleigh, into which he thrust
Ivan, and the vehiclo. moved rapidly away.

Tho interior of the sleigh, which was a covereé
affair, was quite dark. Ivan could not see hiy
conductor, but he felt his hand at his left wrist
whither it had been removed from his shoulder,

“T must get rid of my papers!” said the boy

to himself when he thought of the several revo-—

lutionary journals concealed in an inner pocket
of his thick drab coat. ‘‘Three papers wera
found on Count Kramsin when he was arrested

“T might

 

 

ve

 
ee ac meme

 

 

oe ene

 

He got fifteen years in the mines—five years for
each paper. [have four copies in my bosom.
That would be twenty years.’

Ivan fairly shudder

He at once fell to work with his right hand
and noiselessly unbuttoned his coat. His heart
seemed to stand still when his fingers touched
the compromising documents, and he held his
breath as he drew the first one forth.

Inch by inch it crept from the boy’s bosom,
The gendarme who was berating the driver of
the sledge for lagging by the way, heard and
saw nothing.

Tho youth had beforehand discovered an open-
ing between the bottom of the curtain and the
side of the vehicle, and through this he thrust
the paper and dropped it in the snow.

The others speedily followed it, and Ivan.

breathed freely and smiled with triumph to him-
self when the building so fatal to thousands of
Russians was reached.

‘“ We are here, my little one,” exclaimed the
endarme. ‘‘General Mellikoff awaiis Ivan
‘ouschin.”

“ And I am ready to meet General Mellikoff!”

Ivan was conducted up the several broad steps
in front of the grim old palace, and ushered, un-
announced, as he believed, into the presence of
tbe chief of the Third Section. -

Mellikoff did not appear to notice the young
Nihilist until he had dismissed an officer with
an important order; then he turned slowly u
on Ivan whom he eyed over the heavy gold
rims of his spectacles,

“ The Pouschin boy,” said the gendarme push-
ing Ivan forward.

‘You found him—”

* At one of his haunts—the Nicholas Bridge.”

** Alone?” ;

“ Yes; your excellency.”

Mellikoff did not speak for a moment.

‘Lieutenant Gorloff, prepare to take down
the articles found on this person’s body,” he
said at length, glancing ata young man writ-
ing at a desk near by.

‘You'll not need much paper,” thought Ivan
triumphantly, and as the gendarme approached
to search him he unbuttoned his coat and
prepared to facilitate the hunt for seditious

papers. ;
The Russian searcher when employed by the
Secret Police does not hunt with gentle hands.

_ He dives into one’s pockets with force enough

to deprive them of every vestige of lining, and
acts more like a brute than a man.

Ive 1’s eyes flashed and his teeth met more
than once as the gendarme rifled his pockets of
a pen-knife, a few copecks and several trinkets
to be found in the possession of every Russian
boy. He found nothing treasonable.

The Chief of Police looked disappointed.

“Try again!” he said sternly to the searcher.

This time the man brought up from the
depths of Ivan’s inner pocket, the corner of a
newspaper. It did not contain more than ten
words,

Mellikoff’s eyes greeted it with a gleam of
joy, and Ivan saw examine it for afew
peer in the light of the lamp on his official

table.
“ This is enough,” he gaid, in ‘a voice that

 

' gate of grim ol

The Boy Exiles of Siberia, — 8

seemed a knell of doom to the boy, at whom he
looked with all the severity he could assume,
‘You have been circulating the Voice, Iven
Pouschin,”

lvan did not reply. What could he say?
The piece of paper found in his pocket belonged
- = of the journals he had dropped from the
sleigh.

““T will answer when my trial comes off,” he
said, facing Mellikoff with a calmness that sur-
prised the old general.

The clerks who heard Ivan’s words looked at
one another and smiled, and Mellikoff stepped

uietly to an officer writing at an oval table.
he heads of the two men were together for a
moment,

** Yes, Ivan Pouschin, you will be heard, but
at Tobolsk,” said Mellikoff, when he straighten-
ed up and/looked at the anxious boy.

** At Tobolsk? That is across the frontier.
It is in Siberia!”

“Your knowledge of geography may not be
limited,” smiled Mellikoff. ‘I will send a let-
ter with you to the Governor of Tobolsk con-
cerning your case.”

Ivan bit his lip.

He had not expected to be sentenced to
Siberia without a trial.

‘When do I leave?” he ventured to ask.

“Between this and dawn. ‘You are not go-
ing alone, Ivan. I have provided you with lots
of company,” and Mellikoff’s smile threatened
for a moment to end in a laugh. ‘‘We will
now list you, boy.”

Ivan was then asked his full name, age,
weight, occupation, etc., which was put down
as fast as he answered. He was then led into
asmall room, where he was searched again—
this time by an old man who told bim with
pride that he had searched more than ten thou-
sand suspects—and he was finally removed from
a. building toa sledge waiting for him out-
side.

‘Condemned to Siberia by the corner of a
newspaper !” said Ivan to himself. “* oe
Russia’s northern prison-house shall not hol
me long. I will escape! I will outwit the
watch-dogs of the czar!

CHAPTER II.
THE START FOR SIBERIA,

Ivan had a little time for reflection during
the swift journey from the police building to
the fortress of Peter-and-Paul, from which a
caravan was to start that night for Siberia.

The letter which Mellikoff had promised to
write to the military Governor of Tobolsk gave
Ivan no hope. The boy Nihilist knew that he
would not be tried there—that he would be
taken onto one of the quicksilver mines beyond
Tomsk, in the country of the Yenesei.

Before the sledge reached the fortress Ivan
had thought of the friends he was leaving be-
hind—of Feodor, Gazin, Volga, and the rest.
They would miss him at the Legation, and he
wondered if his American friends would dream
that be—a boy—bhad fallen into the clutches of
seals of the Third Section.

e was roused from his reverie by the gruff
voice of the wee that halted the sledge at the
Peter-and-Paul, and he was

ay

Seen

Sa

 

 
4

The Boy Exiles of Siberia,

 

soon lifted ovt on the parade-ground inclosed by
thick stone »valls. Lights borne on the ends of
lance ever} where greeted the boy’s eyes, and
moving fig ires told Ivan that preparations for
the transfe* of the unfortunate victims of the
Governmor 4’s hate were under way.

He heard an officer say that the caravan soon
to start wold consist of three hundred exiles,
and then ho was taken into the fortress proper,
where tx clothes he wore were exchanged for
prison gariients. These latter ccnsisted of a
gray kaftan, which had a brass number-plate

fastened to the breast, knee-boots and a sheep- |

skin bonnet. The inevitable mug, mess-tin and
wooden spon would not be given him until just
before the ¢ tart.

After beng dressed, Ivan was led into the
square of the fortress, now almost filled with
doomed exiles, who were being chained. to-
gether. Mn and women, old and young, were

. in the com >any; Polish girls were chained to
Muscovites. professors to common murderers.
Everywher » the Cossack guards were cracking
their long whips over the prisoners’ heads, or
using their lances on the backs of the refrac-
tory. The air was laden with groans, shrieks
and curses.

Here anc there stood covered sledges and
tumbrils—s me for the purpose of conveying

the sick anc infirm, others intended for the use |

of a few distinguished exiles, who were able and
permitted t» hire transportation.
wives and sisters of exiles are permitted to ac-

company them to the land of snow and death,
and Ivan feit that a few such occupied some of
the vehicles.

“Stand here, little one,” suddenly cried a

rough voice at Tyan’s elbow, and he was pushed
to the side of a sledge, to which a large Musco-
vite horse was harnessed. ‘‘ We'll find your
partner directly, and give you a néw acquaint-
ance. You'rethe Pouschin boy;and must have
a jolly comy-anion.”

“YT am mirked,” thought Ivan, as the officer
of the gua)d walked away. ‘‘ They call me
the Pouschii: boy as though I was the greatest
conspirator in Russia.”

He had scarcely ceased to address himself
when tho curtain of the sledge was raised, and
the young Nihilist saw a face by the light of
the Cossack lanterns,

It was the face of a boy who must have been
a person of his ownage. The eyes were large
and eo the teatures handsome, though
pale, and Ivan guessed at once that he stood in
tha presence of a member of the upper class of
_ Rassians—the kind of youths he had seen in

costly furs on the boulevards.

“Sishal what kind of a bird are you?’*
exclaime! the boy in the sledge, on catching
sizit of Ivan,

The voics was not insolent, and the speaker
instantly gained one point in Ivan’s favor;
Pe the boy Nihilist answered, respect-

uly :

“Tam Ivan Pouschin, but here I am known
as the Pouse 2in boy.”

The listener smiled sadly.

** You were arrested by the police?”

“ Yes.”

“On what grounds?”

In Russia the |

| * Bless ma if 1 know,” responded Ivan, with

asmile. ‘‘They found a piece of the Voice in
my pocket, I guess that was enough.”

‘Tt was a mountain in Mellikoff’s eyes!”

* And you?”

“Tam awaiting the czar’s pleasure.”

“Which means,” thought Ivan, who knew
the meaning of the expression, ‘“ that he is go-
ing to Siberia to wear the ends of his white
fingers off in the mines, He was higher uv in
the world than I last night. We are on an
equality now. The watch dogs of the czar
know how to level mankind.”

“T like you already, Ivan Pouschin,” said
the occupant of the sledge, frankly. ‘I wish
they ’d let us travel together in my sledge. I
will see Captain Comaroff when he comes
round. Money, they say, will purchase any-
thing but escape.”

Ivan poured forth his thanks to his new
friend and ventured to ask his name.

‘*T am Sergius Potemkin,” was the reply.

“The late prince’s son?”

“The same. The Government drove my
father to suicide, and now it sends me to
Siberia through the plots of a league for whose
eyes the Poterakin roubles have a peculiar fas-
cination. A million roubles are worth plotting
for, aru’t they, Ivan Pouschin? I am not alone,
although my compinion is not with me just
now. The Count Gotin and his wife are in one
of the tumbrils, and they would have Volga,
whom they know, travel with them.”

“ Volga?” echoed Ivan, starting.

“*My sister.”

Ivan could not reply for a minute. Could it
be that the mysterious girl for whom he was
waiting at ths time of bis arrest at the Nicholas
Bridge was Prince Potemkin’s sister? That was
not likely, as the Potemkins were high born
and wealthy, and Ivan was forced to dismiss
the thought.

“Volga determined to go with me from the
moment of my arrest,” continued Sergius. *‘ She
would brave any danger for me. tried to
keep her back, but she would not listen, and of
course her application to share my exile could
not be refused. It was granted with an avidity
that roused my suspicions. I don’t know that I
have ever spoken agaiost the Government, t ut
my heart is with the people. We stand on the
same ground in this matter, Ivan Pousebin.
But the Potemkin roubles was the prize to be
won, and sasha! Volga and I are here. You
have been sentenced?” ;

“No. They say 1 am to be tried at Tobolsk,”
said Ivan, quickly. :

“Do you kuow what that means?”

“*T think I do.”

‘Tt means the mines,”

“Tam not afraid of them. They will not
hold me long. What is your sentence, prince?”

“Twenty years’ residence under constant sur-
veillance at Timsk.”

Ivan smiled to himself, but the quick eyes of
Potemkin captured the expression.

“You are thinking,” he said, ‘‘ that your sen-
tence is not much worse than mine.” :

Ivan by blushing acknowledged that his in-
most thoughts had been correctly read. :

“TI almost envy you,” continued Sergius.

 

 
 

, item wa |

 

 

 

The Boy Lxiles of Siberia. 5

“The mines are terrible places. Men have |
numbers there, and don’t often get to see the
sun: but to be watched all the time by a man
who is your personal enemy—is that not as
bad?”

‘Your personal enemy?” echoed Ivan.

“You will see him presently. His name is
Leo Golitzin; there is Cossack blood, and the
worst kind, in his veins. He has been employed
by the league who want the Potemkin roubles.
I don’t think he ever sleeps. Here he comes.
Study the monster well.”

As Sergius finished he withdrew his face,
and the curtain fell back to its place. Ivan
Pouschin turned to look at the man who had
just come up.

Leo Golitzin was more than half Cossack.
Tall and powerfully built, he added to his strik-
ing physique a pair of eS lrg and a cruel
expression. He was clad in Russian uniform,
like an officer of the escort, and carried in his
hand one of the cutting whips which so terrify
the Siberian exiles. ‘

He sent a swift glance at the sledge to which
he stole with the tread of the cat, and looked in,
He had not perceived Ivan, and did not, for be
quickly turned and. walked away. =

“That is my watch-dog!” said Potemkin, ap-
pearing suddenly in his old place. ‘‘ Just think
of being watched for twenty years by him!”

Ivan’s eyes flashed.

‘He wouldn’t watch me one!” he cried.

‘* Tf we are so fortunate as to get together we
will see whether this Golitzin keeps bis agree-
ment or not.”

“How can we get together?” asked Potem-
kin. ‘‘ Siberia is a vast prison. We-may bea
thousand miles apart. Iam going to Timsk.”

“‘There are mines in the vicinity of that town
if Iam not mistaken.”

“That is true, Ivan Pouschin; but you are
not likely to be sent so far inland. I am told
that young people, doomed to hard labor, are
seldom taken further than Omsk. I think we
are destined to part company at Tobolsk.”

Ivan for a moment looked disheartened. Was
he to lose his new-found friend so soon?

“Here's the little one!” cried a voice that |
roused the young Nihilist, and two men—one
bearing a lantern—came up. ‘‘ We’ve got no |
partner for you, Pouschin, unless we link you |
to the second gang headed by the monster |
Drowski.” :

“Tf you will permit, most excellent gentle- |
men, \1¢ little cne can have a corner of my
sledge,’ spoke up Potemkin at that moment.
‘Here are two roubles for you to drink the |
health of the czar.”

The effect of the prince’s last words was re-
markable, and after a short consultation Ivan
was manacied and thrust into the sledge where |

 

he grasped Potemkin’s hands aud pressed them |
warmly.
The next moment amid the cracking of Cos- !

_sack whips and the shrieks and groans of three

hundred unfortunates, the gates of the fortress |
opened and the head of the column moved out, |

The lanterns of the escort flitted hither and
thither like fire-flies, and the exiles took up}
their march through the city which but few
were ever to see again,

A six weeks’ journey to Tobolsi: lay before
them, and then the mines and lif; under per-
petual surveillance. The life ahead gave Bae
gius but little hope. True, he wou)d be cheered
by the presence of his sister, but the thought of
oer living out her young life in thy regions of
Siberia was enough to make him shudder.

More than once Ivan heard the nime of Vera
fall from the prince’s lips.

“Ah!” thought he. ‘*The prince is leaving
a love behind. Hs may never see Vera again,
and I, perhaps, have lost Volga forever.”

Once or twice the boy Nihilists lifted an edge
of the curtain and looked out. They saw the
mounted Cossack escort and caught glimpses of
the doomed column that wounc snake-like
through the city.

At last they could see no lights st ve those of
the lanterns, and the glittering stars in the
wintry sky.

All at once Ivan felt a hand toucl: his wrist.

“Are you asleep,’ my brother?’ asked a
strange voice,

Although Ivan was wide awake, 4e started.

“ ts not asleep,” he answered. ‘‘ Who are

ou?

‘*T am Sissi, the Cossack of the Don,”

“T don’t know you.”

“That/ is true, brother. Sissi’s heart is in
his brother’s bosom.”

The voice ceased and was heard no more.

Ivan leaned forward and looked cut.

Not a friendly face greeted his vision, and
ere he dropped the curtain he diseovered that
St. Petersburg bad been left behind

The doomed three hundred were fairly on
the highway to Siberia.

CHAPTER III.
IVAN DEALS A LUCKY BLC W.

“THERE are too many birds ii. yon nest.
Remove the giny: one—the Pousch » boy—and
give him Kaffan for a comrade.”

These were the words that salute Ivan’s ears
and startled bim during a tempo ary halt of
the convoy one bitter morning the | eginuing of
the sixteenth day out from St. Pete: svurg,

“That is the voice of Golitzin, my evil genius
—the spy of the men who want the Potemkin
roubles,” grated Sergius. ‘They shall not
separate us now. I will defy Golitzin by an ap-
peal to the commander of our escort. I will
show the monster—”

“No,” interrupted Ivan, ‘Let the watch-
dog go to the end of his chain. The day of re-
tribution will come.”

‘*It shall come!” exclaimed a beautiful young
girl in determined tones,

Ivan threw a look of pride tow rd the last
speaker who was looking out of the fumbril, or
cart, with flashing eyes. She was V ‘iga Potem-
kin, Sergius’s sister. Within the lest few days
she had given Ivan Pouschin a genu se surprise,
She was the Volga of bis acquaintar e—the girl
he had met in front of the Michael ‘I :eater—the
Volga for whom he was waiting at ‘be Nicholas

 

' Bridge when arrested by the gendirme! He

had not, after all, left Volga at the capital, but
was near to speak to her, and to help her, per-
haps, in time of need. :

The three had been happy in the little com-

aa

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cae 2

ES

 

 
   
 
6 The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

 

partment inclosed by the curtains of the cart
uréil the command of Golitzin which ordered
the seperation. : :

“Sergius pleaded with Ivan to be allowed to
resist the spy’s authority, but the boy Nibilist
was firm, and soon Potemkin and his sister
were loft alone in the vehicle. e

Ivan was now chained to a brutal-looking
Russian—an old offender—named Kaffan,
Kaffan’s former companion, a consumptive
young Polish student, had succumbed to the
terrible hardships of the journey, and thus a
vacancy—quickly discovered by Golitzin—bad
been formed for the boy.

Twenty days’ travel still lay before the con-
voy. The Cossacks had not ceased to crack
their stinging whips, nor had the convicts cur-
tailed the number or the vehemence of their
sbrieks and curses. Along the borders of the
wind-swept Khirgez Steppes—strewn with the
graves of hundreds of unfortunate exiles—Ivan
was compelled to tramp with a four pound iron
ball atteched to the chain that manacled his
limbs. The snow almost blinded him, and the
wind penetrated to the marrow of his bones,
but he clinched his teeth and trusted in the
future.

More than once he scanned the faces of the
wild-looking Cossacks who formed the mounted
escort of the convoy. He had hoped to recog-
nize Sissi, the Cossack of the Don, whose voice
had assured him of unexpected friendship dur-
ing his stuy in Potemkin’s cart. The men were

rough-looking fellows, wearing heavy fur anys
and carrying long Jances, with which they id
not hesitate to prod the exiles. The Cossack
leader was a small man of fifty, with a clear

black eye. He was accompanied by a boy of

seventeen who always kept close to his side.
The youth wore the Cossack uniform—if uni-
form the furred garments of the men can
called—and was similarly armed, ‘

More than once the eyes of this boy and Ivan
met, but, the Cossack’s contained no look that
told him anything, and the boy Nihilist finally
selected a stalwart trooper as his friend, Sissi,
and during the remainder of the journey re-
garded him as such,

The journey from St. Petersburg to Tobolsk
—to be precise—lasted thirty-four days, Many
of the exiles had perished on the way, but Ivan
Pouschin had triumphed over every hardship—
thanks to a good constitution—and hailed the
appearance of the capital of Western Siberia
with acry of joy. A cry of joy, we say, be-
cause he would soon learn his fate, and know
whether or not he was to be separated by many
miles from Sergius and Volga,

Tobolsk, at the junction of the Tobol and
Irtysh rivers, isa city of much extent and great
importance. It is ruled by a Governor-general
who holds the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the
Russian army. Itis the great halting place of
the convoys to Siberia, and here the prisoners
are sent to their various destinations—some to

the island cities to live under surveillance in |

houses built by their own means, others to the
mines beyond the Lena. Some of the prisoners
are sentenced by the Governor-general after
their arrival in Tobolsk, but nearly always in

 

accordance with the wishes of Mellikoff, con-
veyed in letters from the Russian capital.

on after the arrival of the convoy in To-
bolsk, Ivan Pouschin found himself summoned
into the presence of theGovernor-general. As
he was about to enter the audience-room, he
met Sergius coming out. The two boys touched
hands. unperceived, and Potemkin seized the
opportunity afforded him to whisper a few
words to Ivan.

‘My sentence has been confirmed,” he said.
“T go to Timsk. Volga accompanies me. I
trust we shall not be far apart.”

It is needless to say that Ivan re-echoed Ser-
gius’s wish from the bottom of his heart as he
released his friend’s hands and passed into the

room.

Clothed in full uniform, and adorned with a

number of glittering medals, the Governor-
eneral received Ivan with a glance that gave
the boy but little hope.

“This is the Pouschin boy—the young con-
spirator,” said the officer, glancing at the open
letter—Mellikoff’s probably—which he held in
his hand, ‘Caught with treasonable papers on
his person, and sent hither by the home Govern-
ment for sentence. What have you to say,

boy?”

Pranite circling glance took in the spectators
as he stepped forward, In one corner of the
room, which—like all the apartments in the
houses of Tobolsk—was not well lighted, he
espied a figure like the spy Golitzin’s. At any
rate, a pair of evil eyes were glaring at him
from the corner, and a flush of rage crimsoned
Ivan’s temples when he decided that they be-
longed to Potemkin’s foe.

“Tam Ivan Pouschin; that is true,” the bo
said, addressing the Governor-general. ‘ But
am not aconspirator. I belonged to no secret
order, although we oe: might have formed a
society. It is true that a piece of paper was
found in my pocket when I was searched by
General Mellikoff’s orders. It was one corner—
a very small piece—of a copy of the Voice,”

_ The Governor-general frowned and stopped
Ivan with an imperative gesture as he was pro-
ceeding.

“Let me-tell you,” he said, ‘that you drop-
ped four papers from the sledge that carried
you to the Department of Justice.”

Ivan started and heard a derisive laugh in the
corner where he had located Golitzin.

“You do not deny this, boy?” continued the
Governor-general, sending a swift look toward
the spy. “Here is the paper that lacks a cor-

-ner, and”—with another smile—“ here is the

missing piece. See! it just fits!” and to Ivan’s
surprise the official held up the identical paper
he had dropped from the sledge with its missing
eorner—the corner that had condemned him—
restored!

He no longer doubted the efficiency of the
Russian police.

“TI dropp»d four papers from the sledge,” said
Ivan, frankly, ‘‘but the corner was all that
was found upon my person.”

“It told the mon of the Third Section to go
back and find where it belonged.*®

Tvan was silent,

 
_ The Boy Exiles of Siberia. 2

 

“Your sentence,” continued the Governor-
general, taking an official-looking paper from
the table by which he stood, ‘‘ your sentence,
Ivan Nicholas Pouschin, is ten years’ hard labor
in the mines of Tomsk, and may you ever bless
the clemency of our father, the czar. Is there
any one present who wishes to speak before the
prisoner receives his new name?

“J, your exce’ jency,” said a voice that sound-
ed to Ivan like tie hiss of a rattlesnake. ‘Is
not the place of this young conspirator’s con-
finement too near the Russian frontier? He is
a desperate fellow, I am told, full of tbe cun-
ning that distinguishes the Siberian fox, and
as there are a number of young convicts in the
mines of Tomsk, would it be well to send kim
there? His father was a conspirator before
him, and the boy may escape if he is not sent
further inland. The mines of Gigansk—”

Ivan uttered a cry of Borror that stopped
Golitzin’s tongue, Only the very worst crimi-
nals are sent to Gigansk, because they cannot
survive work in the mines more than three
years, Yet thisfiend—this Leo Golitzin—would
send him thither because he was Sergius’s
friend!

“You are a monster, Leo Golitzin!” flashed
Ivan, whirling upon the watch-dog of the league
for gold, ‘My father never conspired against
the czar. That lie should have choked you,
You would send me to my death because
the friend of the young people whose roubles
your band are plotting for.”

With a cry like that of a wild beast the spy
sprung at Ivan who retreated to the table and
“cong the heavy pole of a Jakut lance that lay
there.

“Stand off, dog of a spy!” cried the boy.
“Tf you advance Til crush one skull before I
go to the mines.”

Golitzin did not seem to heed the threat, for
he advanced with an oath, and the next second
Ivan aimed a blow at his head!

The boy Nibilist put all his strength into the
stroke, which beat aside Golitzin’s arms, and
the spy reeled away to fall senseless in the
darkened corner be had just deserted.

The Governor-general and his attendants ut-
tered exclamations of horror.

“T would do it again!” exclaimed Ivan,
facing the officers, with the lance still in his
hands. ‘‘I bow to the sentence of the court,
but not to the infamous suggestions of Leo
Golitzin.”

The Governor-general, before he moved or
spoke, glanced from the boy to his victim and
back again, . Then he tore up the sentence to
the mines of Tomsk,

teak 60 to Gigansk! Golitzin has succeeded,”
thought Ivan, as the sen eless and bleeding
body of the spy was carried tbrough the door,

“You are a dangerous fellow,” said the Gov-
ernor-general, ‘‘ You would corrupt the young
men at Tomsk. I therefore revoke that sen-
tence in order to give you your deserts—twenty
years in the Timsk mines. You get ten of them
for the blow you have just dealt.”

Did Ivan betray the joy that made his heart
—almost at a stand-still while the Governor-
general was speaking—beat faster than ever?

Instead of Gigansk and Tomsk he was sen-

 

tenced to Timsk, the very place where Sergius
and Volga were to reside! The blow had been
the luckiest one of his life.

“You may revoke this sentence also,” he
said to the Governor-general.

“Never!” was the stern reply that increased
Ivan’s joy. ‘‘Twenty years in the Timsk
mines—tbat is it. Your blow gave you an “i”
instead of an ‘‘o.” Take him to the convoy,
captain. I will send a letter to Tinisk concerm-
ing this young Russian wolf.

Ivan passed from the audience-room with
proud step. :

That same day all those convicts destined to.
the interior of Siberia left Tobolsk. Ivan was
among them, heavily manacled and closely
watcbed by a man who wore a banilage around
his head.

It was Leo Golitzin.

CHAPTER IV.
IN THE MINES, f

THANKS to the feldsheer, or post-surgeon, at
Tobolsk, Leo Gdlitzin was enablec to accom-
pany the convoy. He watched Ivan as much
as he did the vehicle that carried Potemkin and
his sister, Volga. The first day out on the new
journey, Ivan noticed that the Cossack whom
he had called Sissi had disappeared.

Itis a long, dreary and terrible journey from
the banks of the Iriysh to the mines of Timek,
which are situated among the mouttains at the
northern end of Lake Baikal. Timsk, the town,
is a place of a tew hundred pecple, many of
whom are exiles condemned on account of real
or fancied crimes to a life under the strictest
surveillance. Mountains, whose lofty .ops wear
crowns of perpetual snow, look down upon
Timsk, and serve to imbitter the li: 2s of the ex-
iles. Here live counts, princes a:.d generals,
who have cffended the Russian Covernment,
They are said to be ‘‘awaiiing the czar’s pleas-
ure,” which means that they have lcen secretly
arrested and carried from homes o. splendor in
St. Petersburg and Moscow to peri b by inches
in an inhospitable country—victim: of an awful
tyranny.

One night while Ivan lay awake on the snow
looking up at the stars that glittered in the cold
vault of the sky, he felt something put into one
of his hands. At first be refused to receive it,
but his touch proclaimed it a book—a forbidden
possession in the convict prisons of Siberia.

Wonderment filled Ivan’s heart. It increased
when he turned and saw the person who lay on
his left sleeping like a post, :

“T have another friend,” the boy said to him-
self, and he longed for the momcnt when he
could inspect his present.

The next day Timsk was reache:’, and to bis
joy Ivan was permitted by the co smander of
Shear train to bid Sergius anc Volga fare-
well. 5

““ Courage!” he said to the Pote skins, “A
blow brought me to Timsk when I had been
sentenced to Tomsk. Another wil! free us one
of these days from Leo Golitzin nd all the
watch-dogs of the czar.”

“Wo will keep our courage,” was Volga’s re-
ply. ‘But we are to remain above ground,
where we can see the sun, but you—you, Ivan

*

 

 

 
   

  

8 The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

 

Pouschin—they will take you to the deepest |

mine in this district,”

“ They cannot chain my thoughts down there.
They shall not keep mo long. I havea friend |
somewhere near.”

“A friend?’ echoed the Potemkins, in one
breath. |
“See! and Ivan exhibited the book—a small |
volume of Russian poems—which had been
thrust into his hand the night before.

Sergius’s eyes dilated. 3

“Take it, my brother,” said Ivan, extending
the volume. ‘One can not read in the mines.
You shall read these poems and repeat them to
me one of thes; days.” ;

Sergius took the book, and ashe opened it a
piece of paper fell out, and fluttered to Ivan’s
feet.

“A letter!” cried the boy Nihilist, stooping |
eagerly. F

A rnoment later he held a slip of paper in his |
hand, and read the following words which had |
been scrawled thereon:

“Courage, my little brother! I am_ still near.
The mines of Timsk possess avenues to freedom.

. “Sissi, THR Cossack.”

Sergius and Volga expressed astonishment
over the letter which seemed a mystery to Ivan,
inasmuch as he had noted the absence of the
Cossack whom he called Sissi during the march
from Tobolsk.

At the termination of the interview Ivan was
lost to the world as Ivan Pouschin. His name
was formally taken from him and a number—
774—given in its place.

When he was conducted to the mines which
were two miles from the suburbs of Timsk, he
saw the figure of Leo Golitzin following him
like a wolf on the trail. The spy of the league
kept at a respectful distance, but Ivan could
seo the flashes of triumph that darted from his
eyes, and once or twice he fancied that he
oe a chuckle of satisfaction ripple over his

ips.

Ivan Pouscain, in spite of his determination
to bear up bravely under his misfortune, felt a
shudder—cold as ice—creep to his heart when
the iron door at the mouth of. the mine grated
on its hinges and disclosed an interior dark as
Egypt. From out the darkness came faint
sounds of picks, and now and then the rumble
of wheels and the rough voices of men whom he
could not see. _

After Ivan’s number had been entered ina
book presided over by a man—himself a con-
vict—in the mine, a pick was placed in his
hands, and he was conducted to a cavern-like

room, dimly lighted, but sufficiently to reveal |

thirty or forty long-bearded men, who looked
more like specters than living human beings.

The boy Nihilist was instantly surrounded by
the entire band and plied with questions about
“home,” The word sounded strangely in that
horrible place. Some of the men had ‘been
there ten years, others not so long, but all
wanted the latest news, which Ivan gave them
as well as be could,

They were forced back to their places direct-
ly by the brutal overseer, and Ivan fell to work

 

on the rough gray wall before him with his
pick.

 

The remainder of the day passed drearily

| enough. Ivan heard no sounds but the blows of
| the picks and the fall of loosened particles to

the ground, When night came he was amon
the first to throw down his tools and hold oui
his wrists for the manacles of iron. His supper
consisted of kalatch—a small roll made of
wheaten flour and water—and shtshi—which
unpronounceable name signifies a soup of pickled
cabbage. A little brick tea was added, and
having devoured everything placed before him,
Ivan was assigned to his mess and marched to
one of the slesping cells,

He was now buried under one of the Baikal
Mountains, more than two thousand miles from
St. Petersburg. Snow was overhead, the cold
stones of a convict’s cell uncer his feet. Would
he not have fared better if he wad been sent to
Tomsk?

No! He was near Volga, even if he was in
the bowels of the earth, The thought even ren-
dered him contented.

“What's your number, my little one?’ asked
a voice at Ivan’s elbow in the Stygian gloom of
the cell.

“Seven hundred and seventy-four.”

“Sashal you beat me two points,” and the
convict laughed until Ivan’s blood seemed to
grow chill.

He could not imagine how a man could laugh
in the mines of Timsk. The merriment seemed
widely out of place, and to Ivan’s surprise it in-
creased instead of diminishing, for the convicts
wore adding their terms together and laughing
at the terrible result.

“T am the only new prisoner in this mess,” ;
‘

said Ivan to himself. This is Leo Golitzin’s

work.”

The next moment a hand touched his arm, —

and the boy Nihilist heard at his ear a voice
that sent a thrill through every fiber.

‘Has my little comrade forgotten Sissi the
Cossack of the Don?’ demanded this voice.

“No, no!” cried Ivan. ‘I did not expect to
find you here.”

“True, my brother? but you read the letter
in the book.” F

“ Yes, ves!” eagerly.

A moment’s silence followed. During this
time Sissi’s hand stole to Ivan’s, unshackled
now, and grasped it warmly.

That pressure, a thousand feet under ground,
was a pledge of undying friendship.

‘* What brought you here, Sissi?” asked Ivan,

“Sissi is a spy,” and the answer was followed
by a light chuckle, ‘Listen, my brother.
Sissi’s head has been in Ivan Pouschin’s bosom
ever since he left St. Petersburg. Sissi is the
son of Jemrak, the hetman of. the Don. He
has made many trips from Russia to the mines
with prisoners. Last night the authorities of
Timsk, by command of the Secret Police of
Russia, asked Leo Golitzin to enter these mines
as a spy, but he grew pale and shrunk from the
task, You, my little brother, was to be watched
and induced to make a confession. When
Golitzin refused to enter the mines, Sissi stepped
forward and offered his services, ‘Yes, take
the boy,’ encouraged Golitzin. ‘He will do the
work for you,’ and I was chosen.”

 

 
 

 

' sages which were delivered by Sissi.

 

 

2 — an —

The Boy Exiles of Siberia. 9

 

T thank you, Sissi,” said Ivan.
friend near, thank Heaven!”.

“A brother, my little one. When Sissi leaves
the mines of Timsk to enter them no more Ivan ,
Pousebin will go with him,” |

The heart of the boy Nihilist leaped into his
throat, and he could scarcely repress a cry of
joy.

‘‘ We will escape together,” Sissi continued:

“With Sergius and Volga!”

“We will outwit the watch-dogs of the czar
—Golitzin and all!”

These assurances filled Ivan’s heart with de-
light. It beat also with triumph; but the next
words almost crushed him.

“We must wait until the winter begins to
break up, my little brother,” announced the
Cossack boy.

“That time is five months away!” said Ivan.
“J shall die here before that.”

“Sissi thought his brother had a heart of
steel!” was the cutting reproof.

“Pardon me, Sissi. You will never hear me
murmur again. I will wait.”

The voice of the Cossack boy did not respond.

He had thrown himself on a pallet on the
floor and was already asleep.

In five months the—escape.

 

CHAPTER V.
THE WATCH-DOG IS OUTWITTED.

Day after day Ivan Pouschin went to his
allotted work in the mine. It is useless to say
that he counted them, ay, he counted the hours,

0,

Sissi,-the strong-limbed and ingenious Cos-
sack boy, was not always near him. For whole
days they would be separated. During such
occurrences the Cossack was in Timsk and its
vicinity working secretly for the escape. By
means best known to himself he had accumu-
lated in an abandoned cave in the heart of the
mountains such articles as pistols, hunting-
knives, hatchets and a quantity of strong brass
wire, besides salt and a few articles of food that
keep well in that climate.

Whenever the boy went back to the mine he
carried a message to Ivan from Sergius or
Volga, whose life had passed drearily enough
until this system of communication was estab-
lished, Sergius Potemkin had véen allowed to
erect out of his own means a comfortable one-
story house which boasted of two rooms, one of
which Volga playfully called her boudoir. As
all convicts who await the pleasure of the czar
must work at some trade, Sergius had chosen
that of shoemaker, as work on the heavy soles
strengthened the muscles of his arms and helped
to fit him for the terrible times in store for him.
He was not crowded with work, but he ham-
mered away all the same, occasionally stealing
glances at the volume of poems Ivan had thrust
upon him, or listening to the boy Nihilist’s mes-

A few yards from Sergius’s house dwelt the

 

man who bad accompanied him to Siberia for

{
“T have &| him like a fox; he watched him do his little

trading, and would then dog his steps back to
the house.

“ How is one to escape when watched by an
eye that is never shut?” Sergius had exclaimed
a hundred times.

One day Golitzin suddenly entered a dingy
store just as Sissi had finished a bargain for a
piece of rope.

‘Hello! who is going to lengthen his neck?”
he exclaimed.

“Not you, Leo Golitzin,” was the sarcastic
ee giad ess as the eyes of the Cossack boy seemed

as!

‘That is true, Sissi, but do you not know that
it is against the Jaw for one to purchase more
than ten feet of rope without a permit?”

Sissi did not reply, but quickly caught up fhe
rope, which the merchant, frightened by Go-
litzin’s question, was about to retain,

“ Where is your permit, boy??

Golitzin aa become suspicious as well as irri-
table, and by a heavy stride he landed himself
at Sissi’s side,

“T must insist on seeing your permit,” he ex-
claimed, as his hand darted at the coil of rope
which the Cossack boy jerked beyond his reach,
You will look pretty standing before the Govy-
ernor charged with violation of a special law—
hei: a spy for theGovernment. The permit! or

y the bones of the great Peter, Pll drag you
into court.”

“You will, eh, Leo Golitzin? You once at-
tempted to lay hands on the Pouschin boy, and
got knocked down for your trouble.”

The spy’s face crimsoned, and seeing that.

Sissi was retreating toward the door of the
store-room, he threw himself between him and
the entrance.

Entirely defenseless, but with the coil of
tarred rope which he held in his right hand,
Sissi hailed Golitzin’s insolence with an ejacula-
tion of anger, and raised the novel weapon
against him.

“Let me out, spy!” he flashed. ‘I will be
answerable to the Governor for the purchase of
this rope. lf you do not stand back I will show
you how the hetmen of the Don lasso unruly
colts,”” :

“Touch me if you dare, little law-breaker.”

“You're neither saint nor holy water, Leo
Golitzin.”

As Sissi finished, be raised the rope and would
have dealt a blow that might have disfigured
the spy’s face if a number of loud shouts, fol-
lowed by the heavy boom of a cannon, had not
at that moment greeted the ears of all.

“The new Governor at last!” cried Sissi, let-
ting his‘arm fall. ‘‘If you want to settie with
me, Golitzin, I will meet you anywhere after
pa esd which will take place to morrow
night.” . :

t I will have you tried before that.” ~

‘““ Very well,” answered the Cossack, with a
peculiar smile.

, The collision was thus avoided for the present,
for Leo Golitzin hastened away to greet the new

the sole purpose of watching him. Leo Golitzin | Governor of Timsk who had just arrived from

knew how to play the watch-dog, but Sissi, the
oung Cossack, was his match in cunning,
henever Sergius went out, Golitzin followed

 

St. Petersburg. :
His coming bad been looked forward to with
great interest, for his installation would be sure

 

 

i
1
p
fe

nares

pee re:

RE i cas A

Sam

 

   
 

 

   

10

The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

  

 

to begin a carnival which in Nib-ria is but a
drunken bout, continued until nothing is left
to drink. For several days, in anticipation of
the new oOfficial’s arrival, troops of Cossacks
had poured into Timsk from «he surrounding
districts. These native chieftains, dressed in
their rich uniforms of fur and bearing long
lances decorated with gaudy ribbons and mar-
ten tails, presented a romantic appearance.
They were the descendants of the wild men who
harassed Napoleon’s columns during the ill-
fated retreat from Moscow,

Amid the shouts of the people and the roar of
a few brass pieces, the Governor and his escort
entered the town, and proceeded at once to the
building called by courtesy, the palace, where
Leo Golitzin was trying to obtain an audience
with the wan whose term of office was about to
expire.

“Tecan bear no charges now,” the spy heard
the old Governor sayto the officer who had car-
ried bis request into his presence. ‘‘ Golitzin
ought to know that this is an hour which be-
longs to the people. Day after to-morrow he
can be heard by my successor—not before,”

Golitzin bit bis lip and turned away.

“Something is afoot,” be growled. ‘TI will
watch the young Cossack. If J note anything
suspicious I can have him locked up in the
mine, I have some authority there.” -

But Leo did not note anytbing suspicious save
the purchase of the rope, for he did not see
Sissi again, and in the excitement and the many
times he was called upon to toast the new
Governor, the scene at the shop almost escaped
his’ mind,

The next day the Governor was officially in-
stalled. There was a grand parade by the Cos-
sack cavalry, and several salutes by the little
battery whose pieces awoke the echoes of the
mountains.

Four months and ten days had passed since
Ivan Pouschin’s arrival at the mine. The cold
weather had departed and the sun of Siberia
was melting the white blankets that covered
the mountain ridges. Night after night the
discordant bowls of troops of balf-famished
wolves had resounded through the streets of
Timsk, and several of thé boldest had been shot
among the suburbs of the towm.

After the parade came the banquet, to which
the most prominent people in Timsk had been
invited. o Golitzin had drawn a prize in this
lottery, and was much ela‘ed at finding his
seat within speaking distance of Tamaroff the

 

new Governor,
J need not describe the orgies that followed |
the opening of the feast. In one end of the’
long room a band of natives made hideous |
music on a lot of balalaikas—guitars with three |
strings—and a score of singers murdered song)
without remorse. ~
As the hours flew by the excitement waxed |
greater. Kivass and vodki flowed without stint |
and the majority of the new Governor’s escors |
became hopelessly intoxicated, In Siberia every- |
body drinks, and on an occasion like the oue we |
have attempted to deseribe, to remain suber is
the exception, not the rule. cs
Day was breaking when Leo Golitzin, unable
to help himself, hired. two men to convey him

to his watch-house.. They performed their dut
by dragging the spy unceremoniously throug!
the streets, and pushing him into, the hut, cold
as a cranny barn, ;

Leo had strength enough to drag himself to a
cot where he soon fell asleep. The sun came up
and soared meridianward. It lighted up the
little room in which the spy slept, and by shin-
ing fiercely in his face, at last awoke him.

“T made a fool of myself .ast night,” said
Leo. ‘The vodki got into my head,and I forgot
to mention my charge against Sissi‘to the new
Governor. I wonder if he will hear me now?
Governor Tochin said he would.”

The spy was making his toilet for an inter-
view with the new official, when he espied his
mail, the first he had hsd from the Russian cap-
ital since his arrival at Timsk, It had been de-
ae by the Government postman during his
sleep.

There were several letters in the pack, which
were at once opened and read.

All at once Leo’s eyes dilated and he uttered
a cry of astonishment.

A postscript attached to the last letter had
read thus:

“The boy Sissi is the person to watch. One of
these nights the Potemkin nest will become vacant
and Sissi will fly away.”

As Leo finished, he glanced instinctively at
the Potemkin residence which could be seen
from his window.

The structure wore a look of loveliness which
he had never seen there before. He could not
hear Sergius’s hammer at work on the heavy
sole-leather of the officers’ boots.

His heart seemed to stand still for fear.

Dropping the letters, he threw open the door
and rushed out. A few bounds brought him
to the cabin, the door of which he burst in
without ceremony.

He found himself face to face with Sergius’s
work-bench and tools, but not ali of the latter.

“Thave been a fool!” gasped Leo staring for
a moment into the empty nest. ‘If I bad
went yesterday to the post-office, as I should
have done, the birds would have found me at
the cage door when they opened it. Now—”

He broke his own sentence by rushing from
the hut.” :

He looked like a madman as he flew toward
the mouth of the mine, and the record-keeper
there started,back as Leo sprung into his dingy
quarters,

“Cail up No, 214,” he said.

That was the number by which Sissi was
known in the mine, although the officials knew
that he was not a convict, but a spy.

“Tt is no use, ‘was thereply. ‘No, 214 is
not here.”

Leo breathed hard.

“No. 774, then.”

“ Certainly,” said the official touching a rope
above his head,

A man appeared.

‘*No. 774 in the office —at once!”

Leo Golitzin could hardly remain calm while
he waited for Ivan Pouschin’s appearance.

At last the man sent after him came back,

  

 
 

 

 

 

—_ = anal ene. 29 - Pr a EN my se a,
The Boy Exiles of Siberia. 11
“Alone! I knew it! cried Leo. “The | hundred miles stretch their deadly length be-

Pouschin fox has gone off with the rest.”

Then he wheeled upon the terrified record-
keeper.

‘You will exchange your pen for a pick,” he
exclaimed. ‘‘Butnever mind. They have left
Leo Golitzin behind that -he might hunt them
down and drag them back’ to torture and death.
How many vonvicts have escaped from
Siberia?”

“Not one,” answered the official.

“This shall ever be the reply to questions
like mine,” said Leo as he darted away.

The Governor was horrified by the intelligence
that three important convicts had escaped
while he was celebrating his inauguration.

“ T give you full powers,” he said to Leo. ‘‘ The
foot soldiers and the Cossack cavalry are at
your command, But if the convicts escape,
you go back to St. Petersburg in irons!”

Leo smiled haughtily.

“They shall not escape,” he cried. ‘‘ With
the wild beasts of the Baikals, and Leo Golit-
zin on their trail, they cannot reach the fron-
tier! ;

 

CHAPTER VI.
MONSTERS OF THE MOUNTAINS.

Sissr, the Cossack of the Dcn, had played
well his game.

‘The purchase-money, by which the hatchets,
pistols and even four horses—the latter ridden
to Timsk by Burait-Cossacks—had been se-
cured, was furnished by Sergius, and used to
the best advantage by Sissi, as the future told.

The simplicity of the escape would have as-
tonished Leo Golitzin if it bad been made known
to him. Sergius and Volga had but to leave
their hut during the progress of the revel at the
Go vernor’s Palace and proceed to a certain spot
among the mountains previously agreed upon
and well described by the Cossack boy. As
there were but few sober people in Timsk that
night, the fugitives were not perceived, and
they reached the rendezvous without accident,

Sissi was attending to Ivan Pouschin, whose
escape was uiore difficult.

During his visits to the mines the young Cossack
had ingratiated himself in the favor of theseveral
officials and watches with whom he constantly
came in contact. Under the boy’s instructions,
Sergids had drawn up an order for Ivan’s con-
duct to the Governor; this document Sissi car-
ried to the mines at the close of the eventful
day. The officials, who had been drinking the
sew master’s health all day, did not doubt the
psi of the’paper, and Ivan was taken

rom the depths of the living grave by the brave
Cossack boy. 2

Once above ground, the pair hastened to the
rendezvous, where Ivan embraced his friends,
and all sprung to the backs of the horses already
secured,

“To the south!” cried Sissi.

*‘The Chinese frontier?’ asked Sergius,

“Yes—from snowflakes to sunheams,” ex-
claimed Ivan, enthusiastically. - ‘* Did I not tell

ree that Siberia would not hold us

on, ,

‘“ Wait, brother Ivan,” answered Potemkin,

seriously. “We are not out of the woods. Four

 

tween us and China.” =

The prince spoke truly.

Timsk was near the northern termination of
Lake Baikal in the government of Irkutsk. The
lake itself is nearly four hundred miles in
length. The fugitives were on its western side
with their faces turned toward the town of
Irkutsk, They were in the wildest part of Si-
beria—among mountains whose wiid inhabi-
tants were not less savage than their beasts,
The night was cold and full of glittering parti-
cles of snow, which seemed to fall from the
stars, when it really came. from the mcuntain
peaks overhead—blown down by the winds.

Fortunately for the adventurers, the trail
that wound through the mountains had been
trampled by the tioofs of horses ridden the day
before into Timsk by the mountaineers, and a
good gallop was maintained until the lonely
night gan to wear away.

‘We must abandon our horses, or eat them,”
said Sissi, with a grim smile and a glance at
Volga,

“Not now?”

“No, not now,” was the reply.

‘Tam ready for anything,” said Ivan, firm-
ly.. ‘‘My face shall never be turned toward
Timsk. China, always! That is my motto.”

These were brave words, and they found a
responsive echo in the Potemkin beart.

orning found the four in a wild pass whose
sloping sides glistened even in the faint light
that threw no shadow. Cornices of snow over-
hung the peaks and threatened to fall at any
moment, and bury all. Volga looked up and

saw the clear blue sky, against which appeared (

several dark objects that seemed to move.

“Look!” cried Sissi, pointing suddenly at
them. ‘“ Vultures!”

“The ones that followed our convoy across
the Khirgez steppes, perhaps,” said Ivan. “‘ Ah!
what was that?” ,

The young Cossack showed his white teeth in
a smile, :

“ Babies crying for food,” he said.

“Children?” echoed the prince, astonished.
“ What inbuman parents theirs-must be!”

Sissi burst into a laugh.

“The children of the mountains will eat Po-
temkin, if they ever take him,” he said, as he
finished.

“T understand—you now, Sissi. Those cries
come from the throats of wolves.”

The young Cossack bowed.

“We sha
day,” he said. ‘They will find us many times
between Timsk and the frontier.”

During the first day the fugitives trageled
without halting. At all times they heard the
sound of wolves, but not one animal showed
himself.

They were now deep among the mountains,
which were covered with dense pine forests,
the home of many of the valuable fur-bearing
animals of Siberia,

If they were pursued, Golitzin bad not
showed himself, and the fugitives found them-
selves, at sundown, before a deserted hut, the
roof of which had been almost crushed in by
the snow, :

meet them by and by, but not fo- ;

   
  

a aan ll

 
 

12 The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

 

|

Sissi said that the structure had been the
abode of some Burait hunter, and suggested
that a fire be built in the interior for the pur-
pose of warming some tea which he had
Se ek brought along, |

* This is delightful !” exclaimed Volga, warm-
ing her hands in the blaze oVer which the little
samawar, or tea-pot, had been swung. ‘What
would not Leo Golitzin give if he could put his ,
hands on us to-night?” |

“What would not Mellikoff give if he could
collar me?” lau hed Ivan Pouschin.

At that moment Sissi sprung up, and was
about to go to the rackety door, when it was
pushed inward, and every person started back
with cries of horror.

* Leo Golitzin!” cried Volga.

* No—two bears!” ejaculated Ivan,

The young Nihilist was correct.

Standing in the doorway, with their shaggy
sides touching, were two enormous black bears,
8 whose eyes hunger looked as from a prison
cell,

The Siberian bear grows to great size among
the Baikal mountains, and the two that sur-
prised the inmates of the Burait but were kings
of their species. The horses which had been
foreed into the shanty uttered snorts of. terror
and threatened to break loose, while the human
beings stared at the fierce intruders.

“Sashal we must fight.them!” cried the boy
Cossack, seizing the only rifle which he had
obtained for the ceoaee:

Ivan Sergius and Volga drew their pistols.

The bears showed no signs of retreat. On the
contrary, the largest exbibited bis teeth, and
advanced just as Sissi’s finger pressed the

trigger.

The click of the lock was followed by a loud |
report which must have echoed far from the
spot, and the big bear uttered a cry of rage
and pain,

‘Hit, but not finished!” said Ivan, who saw
a chance for a vital shot as the animal had
turned half-way round.

oe went off at that moment, seriously
wounding the monster already bit by the Cos-
sack, and staggering him against the door-
frame, to the annoyance of his companion, who
was thus forced against the other side.

“No more shooting, Leo Golitzin may hear!”
cried Sissi, who saw by a glance that Sergius
and Volga were about to follow Ivan’s example,

An instant later the Cossack boy seized a fire-
brand and sprung at the bears,

‘Save him!” cried Volga as Sissi, instead of
delivering a tremendous blow, tripped on a
noe and fell forward directly into the jaws of

eath. ‘

“Sissi lives yet!” came back the quick
response; but before the little Cossack could
rise, a heavy paw fell on his shoulder and held

. bim down,

But he drew his*knife and managed to turn
his body evough to aim a blow at the heart of
the mountain king. Deep into the side behind
the fore-leg sunk the keen Siberian blade, and
Sissi ground his teeth as he gave it a wreuch
previous to withdrawing it.

The bear, wounded to death, uttered a growl

 

that seemed to shake the hut to its nethermost

t

 

log, and as he reeled away the Cossack at-
tempted to escape, But at that instant the
second animal darted fiercely at him, and, to
the horror of the speechless fugitives, caught
him up with his teeth and turned to fly.

“We must not lose our rescuer thus,” burst
from Ivan’s throat at the bear’s movements,
and jerking one of the largest burning sticks
from the fire he rushed fearlessly after Sissi’s
captor.

e barely escaped the claws of the dying
bear whose huge carcass almost blocked the
doorway, and a moment later he was in hot
pursuit down the mountain trail.

Sissi had been deprived of his knife, and
was being dragged over the whitened trail at
no mean gait by the wounded and infuriated

ar.

Although Ivan followed at the top of his
speed he experienced some difficulty in over-
taking the boy-thief whom he fearlessly at-
tacked with the torch. Blow after blow Ivan
rained upon the bead of the stubborn monster.

Bruin was loth to quit his hold.

“Come quick, and put an end to their battle
with your pistol,” Ivan cried to Sergius whom
he heard coming up.

“J am coming, brother,” was the response, °

Just as the prince appeared on the scene Ivan
uttered a wild cry, for the bear and Sissi had
disappeared as though the earth had opened
and swallowed them!

“Horrors! we have lost our all,” fell from the
lips of the two boys as they ran forward and

azed over the edge of an abyss whose depths
van’s torch could not reveal,

For several moments they stood upon the
very rim of the cliff, and gazed with blank
dismay into each other’s faces,

“Took for bim, brother, Throw your torch
down and see what it reveals.”

Ivan did not hesitate but leaned as far over
the edge of the precipice as he could without
losing bis balance, and hurled his flaring torch
into the chasm. :

With bated breath both boys watched the de- -

scent.

Suddenly Potemkin uttered a cry.

*T see him brother!”

“Yes,” responded Ivan. ‘‘ He is hanging by
a frail bush that threatens to break in his
hands. Go back after the rope, Sergius. Fly
like the swiftest bird of Russia, On the next
five minutes hang China and the mines of
Timsk!” ,

Potemkin did not reply, bué darted toward
the hut.

 

CHAPTER VII.

AVALANCHES AND WOLVES,

Fear of losing their al'y and guide lent speed
to Potemkin’s limbs, He reached the mountain
hut in a few minutes to find Volga alone with ~
the still frightened horses and the dead bear,

“The ropes—quick!” exclaimed Sergius.

Volga seemed to understand at once that
something terrible had happened, and hastened
a te brother get the strong cords from
the pack.

A few moments later Sergius was hurrying

 

 

 
 

 

 

The Boy Exiles of Siberia. {3

 

back with the coils in his hands. He was
eeooilyeneed by Volga who carried a fresh
ore.

“ Does he live?” were the words with which
the prince greeted Ivan whom he found leaning
over the abyss.

“Just in time, my brother,” answered Tvan,
bounding up. ‘My torch has lodged among
the branches of a tree, and I can see Sissi
betwe n me and its blaze. Ah, you have the

ropes! The bush gives under Sissi’s weight, but , hut,
he holds on for his life. How brave the Cossack |

is!”

Far below their position the three fugitives
could see Ivan’s torch flared by the wind in a
tree that grew from the side of the chasm. Its
light revealed the brave Cossack boy clinging
to the frail bush which threatened to break at
any moment, and let him fall to the bottom of
the abyss where no doubt lay the huge body of
the bear.

Guided by Ivan’s hands the rope rapidly
descended until it reached the bush to which
Sissi clung.

“Take hold!” cried Tvan.

This command was not needed, for Sissi had
clutched the rope first with one hand, then with
the other, and in a faint voice had told the trio
to pullaway. This they did with a will, Volga
pulling with the others, and Sissi swinging in
mid-air over the horrid chasm, slowly
approached the top,

t wasa moment of great suspense, but thanks
to the rope and the powers of the three, the
Cossack was. extricated from his peril,

and stood once more in the mountain trail |

above.

‘T almost see the frontier!” exclaimed Ivan,
joyfully.

‘We are not there yet, my brother,” was the
young Cossack’s rejoinder in a voice that did
not increase Ivan Pouschin’s hopes. ‘‘ There
aré more than bears and gaping chasms between
us and the Kingdom of the Sun. Let us hope,
however.”

‘“We willdo more than that,” cried Volga,
bravely.
need and win it too,

The little party had already turned their
faces toward the but, and were not far from it
when a crashing sound startled every one, and
made them exhibit frightened faces to one
another,

“Snow from a mountain top. Alas! our
poor horses!” cried Sissi, springing forward.

The Cossack had correctly guessed the cause
of the noise, for a few moments later the fugi-
tives were gazing upon the terrible work of the
avalanche.

Near the close of the Siberian winters great
quantities of snow, loosened on the mountain-
sides by the warm beams of the sun, become
detached and fall into the trails below. They
are not as destructive as the avalanches of the
Alps, but they are powerful enough to crush in
the roofs of peasants’ huts, and sometimes deal
death to their inmates.

One of these huge bodies of snow had fallen
upon the hut from which, fortunately, the
fome eres had been called by the visit of
e famished bears. The roof, old and insecure

“We will fight for the success: we }

;

‘at the best, had been driven in upon the horses,
and.but one corner of the hut was visibie above

| the white mass,

| “Come,” cried Ivan; ‘‘ we must do what wa
can for our beasts.”

The young Nihilist drew his hatchet and be-
gan to cut his way through the heavy snow to
the door of the cabin. Aided by his compan-
ions, this task was soon accomplished, and their
torch revealed the now cramped interior of the

ut.

Horrors! Not a horse was found alive.
Driven downward by the snow, the heavy tim-
bers had fallen upon the poor beasts, crushin 3
| the life out of eaca in the twinkling of an eye.

It was the most terrible misfortune that
could have befallen the fugitives at any time,
but just then it was terrible indeed. They had
not reached that part of the country when
they could proceed by other means than in the
saddle, Leo Golitzia was undoubtedly on their
trail, and as they were now comp”'led to pro-
ceed without their animals, the final success of
the watch-dog seemed assured.

To remove from tho ruined hut what things
they could carry was now the four’s only work,
This was accomplished in a short time, and bid-
ding adieu to the memorable place, they re-
sumed the journey, guided by Sissi, who had
recovered from his experience with the bear.

Having been raised among the very moun-
tains whose trails he was now threading, Sissi
the Cossack was the best guide the fugitives
could have obtained. Born on the banks of the
Don, he accompanied Jermak, his father, to

the service of the czar, Thus, instead of pass-
ing bis boyhood amid scenes of his birth, the
Cossack boy had learned the mysterious trails of
the Baikals. He knew them as they are known
| by the Burait hunter, or the wolf that travels
| them night and day in search of food. With a
step as sure as that of the ibex, and an eye 4s
keen as the eagle’s, Sissi led the fugitives up one
trailand down another as rapidly as-they could
travel,

“ Are you not tired, Volga?” asked Ivan, who
| constantly admired the courage of the fair
Russian girl, who struggled bravely on at his
| side. :

. “Tired when you and Sergius never mur-
| mur!” was the quick response, ‘ Ah, do not
| ask moe whether I am weary, Ivan. China is
| before us, tre mines of Timsk behind. Is nol
| that thought enough to give one new strength?”
| Ivan-shot Volga a look of pride, and was about
| to reply when Sissi, who was a short distance
| ahead came back and in a whisper commanded
- silence. i

‘A caravan on i's way back from Irkutsk is

| approaching,” was his startling explanation,
| “Tfit passes us safely we may rejoice, for Le

Golitzin will not be able to get any Information

from it when he meets it.”
| Close to- the sides of the mountain-pass crept
the breathless fugitives, and there, with pistols

drawn, they awaited the caravan.

As we may have occasion to take the reader
to Irkutsk in the course of our narrative, we
will say here that the approaching caravan con-
: sisted of Siberian traders, merchants and hunt-

 

 

Siberia, whither the hetman had been sent in |

 

ese

i
7

 

   
   

a4 The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

 

ers from the north, returning from the fair held
annually in that city. Those who were success-
ful during their stay in Irkutsk were _ boister-
ous, as the fugitives soon learned by loud
voices, which marked every foot of ground
traversed by the party.

The head of the caravan soon appeared. Not
a torch was to be seen for the stars afforded
light enough for the Siberian guides. A great
many of the travelers were afoot, and not a few
of these carried heavy bundles which they were
bearing to wives and sweethearts in the far
north. It was a motley crowd, but the fugi-
tives did not smile at the rough jokes and gro-
tesque songs of the happy men; their own situ-
ation was enough to keep all color from their
cheeks, :

A long-drawn sigh of relief escaped all when
the last stragglers had passed, but not a word
was poken until the loud voices of the caravan
were heard no longer.

‘Fortune is with us at last,” cried Potemkin.
“Those fellows will swear to Golitzin when they
encounter him that they saw no living ghost on
their journey. Hark!”

The prince turned his head half-way round
and listened attentively to certain sounds that
came from the south—over the trail just tra»
versed by the caravan.

“They are the sneaking Siberian wolves!”
said Sissi, smiling.

“They are coming toward us.”

“Oh, yes. They follow the merchants, who

do not more than half pick their bones. We
must go toward them, my brothers.” ,
* There was no other alternative, and with de-
termination the four ploged forward again,
ready to face the howling pack that followed
the caravan.

Nearer and nearer they approached the
wolves. The mountain defiles now ming with
the discordant bowls. Sergius, Ivan aiid Volga
drew their pistols again, and loosened the bat-
chets in their belts. As for Sissi, he dived into
the depths of a leather pouch he carried at bis
side and brought up several small balls wrapped
in oiled paper, These, instead of his pistol, he
carried in his right hand, and continued to ad-
vance,

At length nothing but a bend in the trail
seemed to shut them from the wolves.

‘We shall have to fight the horde,” said Vol-
ga, firmly. ‘‘Let us stand together and perish
here, or cross the frontier side by side.”

“That we will do,” answered Ivan, as the van-
guard of the wolfish legion sprung into view,
exposing gaunt frames and fiery eyes.

be next instant the whole trail was blecked
by the pack,

“1 will scatter the mountain thieves!” ex-

 

claimed Sissi, as he went forward with his right
hand uplifted.

Rapidly, and with precision, the fearless Cos-
gack Jaunched three paper-ccvered pellets into
the wolves’ midst. Each one xploded with a

poise not as loud as that proau.°d by a fire- |
cracker, but the effect on the animais was won- |
derful.

Instead of coming on, they began to retreat
with howls of terror, and

ree minutes after

 

Bissi’s singular attack not a wolf remained in
the trail. f

A laugh rippled over the young Cossack’s
lips nt the effect of bis missiles, which were
charged with a powerful] drug obnoxious to the
wolf, and from which he will fly at all times.

The fugitives got a whiff of the compound as
a gust of mountain wind struck their faces, and
were forced to cover their noses until the un-
pleasant odor had ‘passed,

Sissi followed the disgusted pack a short dis-
tance, and had the satisfaction of delivering
two more salutes of a similar kind, which in-
creased the animals’ gait. ;

When he rejoined the adventurers and placed
himself once more at their head, he was touched
on the arm by Ivan, who whispered in his ear:

*¢ What has become of the stars? A moment
ago there were millions in the sky, now—”

Sissi broke lvan’s sentence by turning to the
north, °

“ Ah! the winds are blowing snow upon us
from tbe peaks overhead,” ejaculated the
prince at that moment. ‘Does this not mean
another avalanche?”

“T think not,” saidIvan. “It is snowing be-
hind us.” :

“That is good!” cried the Cossack. ‘‘The
snow hides the trail!” and all pushed on again
with courage renewed.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE WATCH-DOG ON THE TRAIL.

Tum reader will pardon us at this stage of
our narrative if we retrace our steps in the
present chapter and go back to Leo Golitzin.

Armed with authority from the newly in-
stalled Governor general, the spy prepared at
once for the pursuit of the fugitives.

From among the soldiers, he selected three
dark -faced, robust fellows, and a small detach-
ment of Cossack cavalry, besides two experi-
enced Burait guides—men who knew the Baikals
as the hunter knows the forest, .

The rage of Leo knew no bounds} nor did he
attempt to confine it: The Governor-general’s
threat was enough to spur him on to action.
If he returned to Timsk without the fugitives,
he would be sent to St. Petersburg in irons.

He therefore led his men from the town with
great speed and high hopes. He was confident
that he would overtake the little party some-
where among the mountains, but as the hours
wore on without bringing him success, he be-
gan to fear that he might fail after all.

Hope was renewed in the watch-dog’s breast
when the crushed mountain hut and the dead
horses were accidentally discovered. He was on
the right trail, and as the fugitives had been
forced from the scene of the misfortune on foot,
Leo cheered himself with the thought that his
task would end many miles to the north of the
China frontier.

“Ahl a caravan!” exclaimed Leo when the
head of the party returning from Irkutsk came
suddenly into view. ‘We shall obtain some
news from the south.” :

But the men of the caravan knew nothing of
the quartette flying from Siberia. and although

  

 
 

 

 

 

 

The Boy Exiles of Siberia. 18

 

{Leo more than hal? suspicioned the old Gigarsk |
captain who led the caravan because he resent-
ed some of his insolence, he was forced to push
on without any cheering information.

“The law given to the Buraits many years
ago is stillin force, my betman,” said one of
the Cossacks suddenly to Leo as the squadron
was pushing through a dark mountain defile.

“ What law?”

“‘The Burait hunters are at liberty to kill
any strangers found in their districts—that is,
strangers traveling south without documents.”

«o's eyes dilated and he gave the Cossack
two strange looks before he replied.

“Do they carry out that law?” he asked.

“Yes, hetman. You have your documents?”

“No, but are not these men enough?” And
Leo designated his followers by a wave of his
hand. ‘Iam surrounded by the authority of
the czar. The wild men of the Baikals ac-
knowledge that, do they not?”

“Not always. We are many versts from St,
Petersburg, hetman. The czar is not here.”

Leo looked ahead and grated his teeth,

‘‘ Let the Burait-Cossacks dispute one inch of
this ground with us if they dare!” he said
madiy. \ ‘Our lances and our pistois shall carry
to their hearts conviction that 1 am the servant
of the czar!” 2

The old “ussack who heard these words, al-
though Leo in his anger did not intend them for
his ears, made no reply, but glanced at the lit-
tle force at his back, and silently counted the
lances, ,

It was evident from the mountaineer’s glance
that he did not place much reliancein the part
—especially when he thought of the fhowenuels
of half-civilized mountain robbers who could
be brought against them by a single blast ona
Buikal horn. Terrible fellows the Burait-Cos-
sacks are, with their heavy lances, sharp as
needle-points, and trusty as swords of Damas-
cus.steel. They maneuver after certain tactics
that make them well-nigh invincible, have no
battle-cry, and no standard, except the horse-
tail that streams behind their leader’s lance.
They charge the foe in silence—the command a
swoop of their hetman’s spear—and woe to the
unfortunate detachment or caravan that at-
tempts to resist their onslaught. :

Leo Golitzin in his haste to follow and over-
take the Potemkins and Ivan had not stopped
to think of the procurement of documents.
What good would they do him among the moun-
tains? Now he regretted that he had overlock-
ed this important thing. Retreat was not to be
thought of. If it nal entered Leo’s mind he
would have rejected it in an instant,

“Never turn back without the young con-
victs—that’s my motto—my resolve! I am uot
going to St. Petersburg in irons. Tochin’s suc-
cessor shall never tell off an escort to conduct
mé across the Urals.”

Tbese were the words of a determined, desper-
ate man.

“ Curse the snow!” suddenly cried Leo, who
felt a number of drops of water on his cheeks.
“Tt is obliterating the trail ahead of us, Ker-
mak, we must press on, Forward, men! To-
morrow we shall find the convicts and turn our

 

backs to this storm.”

This was the snow blessed by Sissi, the young
Cossack, when Ivan exclaimed that it was fall-
ing behind them, that p: between them and
Leo Golitzin. It was not strange that it should
be joyfully received by one party and cursed
by the other, To the four fugitives it brought
nope, to Leo the deepest chagrin,

Tne storm increased as the pursuing parties
pushed on. Goaded by sharp spurs attached to
the heels of heavy bull-hide boots which reached
to the wearer’s knees, the hardy horses dashed
forward. Leo rode between the two Burait
guides. He did not doubt the loyalty of these
two men, for they had promised faithful servica
before leaving Timsk, and had received some
pay in advance, : :

All at once through the blinding flakes came
the clear sound of a horn,

The soldiers behind Leo uttered exclamations
of surprise, and involuntarily reined in their
steeds. Tho Cossacks grasped each other’s arms
and conversed in the mysterious languoge of
the mountains by the pressure of bronze fingers
on the deer-hide sleeves. .

‘¢¥falt!” cried Leo, in a voice so loud that its
echoes came back from the unseen depths of the
ravine they were traversing... “The robbers
may be about to attack us. Let every man get
ready and wait for the second blast of the born,
Come bere, Kermak. They say that each blast
from a Baikal horn has a meaning. What did
that sharp one say?”

Before the old betman could answer Leo, an-
other blast fell upon their ears, and so loud and
clear, that the Russian watch-dog recoiled in
his saddle, ;

The next instant thesnorting of several horses
came from the gloom abead, and with an awful
erash a squadron of Burait-Cossacks fell like a
eee ee ee thunderbolt upon Leo and his

roop. - :

Not a ery—not a comment had preceded the
terrible onset which forced the horses back, and
sent men reeling from their saddles. Cursés,
blows, yells of rage and sparks of fire, as steel
mot steel in the gorge, followed the coilision.

Taken unawares, Leo Golitzin’s troop could
not deliver an effective blow.

Leo himself had escaped death by the merest
chance.

His horse was forced back, and he was almost
torn from his saddle by a lance that made a rent
like a saber gash in his jacket near his heart.

Horses and men were a confused mass in the
gorge. The Buraits fought silently, Leo’s troop
with loud shouts, which gave the discreet enemy
an advantage that was fast proclaiming victory
in their favor.

Suddenly Leo felt a hand at his horse’s bridle,
and the next moment he was borne away as
rapidly as his steed could carry him through
the snow, -

“Let me alone, or by the heart of Peter the
Great, I'll leaye your carcass for the Baikal
wolves!” grated Leo, trying to tear Joose the

| band that clutched the rein, ‘‘Unhand me, I

say.” i

ULet my hetman strike, and he will never
carry the young convicts in triumph to Timsk,”
was the response,

 

RN mgr

heme pation ww

 

i
'
{

 
 

  

16

 

The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

  

 

~

b pea avenee a shout of joy and withdrew his
and.

The speaker was Kermak, the old Cossack,
and he was guiding him from the battle raging
terribly in his rear. =

On, on flew Leo and his deliverer until the
sounds of conflict grew less distinct, and finally
died away altogether.

i
Timsk. They were set by bending a twigin the .

“A thousand thanks, Kermak!” exclaimed |

Leo, when a halt had been made at last. ‘TI
live to hunt the young fugitives down! I swear
by the book that they shall go back to Timsk
with me. Do you know these trails, Kermaik?”?

‘Better than the two Buraits, my hetman.

If the robbers had seen usin the daytime they |
Our comrades |
; covered by the Cossack boy during the day.

would never have attacked us.
live not behind us.”

“ Have all fallen, Kermak?”

* All!” said the Cossack,

Leo Golitzin thought a moment and smiled.

‘*We are rid of some rubbish, anyway,” he
exclaimed. ‘If you stand by me, Kermak, I
will triumph yet.

The Cossack held out his hand. ;

“ When the stars fall Kermak will turn from
his hetman,”

The time was coming when Leo would recall
these words with startling force,

 

CHAPTER IX.
A GORGE FULL OF TRAPS.

HAVING dispersed the wolves by means of the
explosive torpedoes, the four adventurers con-
tinued to push southward. Totheir left lay the
frozen surface of Lake Baikal, and in their
front, but still far away, tho famous Angara,
which, as one of the tributaries of the Yenesei,
finally pours its waters into the Arctic Sea.
North of the Angaraa number of small streanis
flow into the Baikal. Some of these boast of
swift currents during the short Siberian sum-
mer, but winter keeps them locked the greater
portion of the year with his icy keys.

The fugitives experienced no difficulty in |
to snow-shoes, on which they were enabled to

crossing such rivers as lay in their path, tor the
ice was heavily coated with snow. °

A number of days had passed since their suc-
cessful escape from ‘limsk, and they had pro-
ceeded many wiles on their perilous journey.
Save a few Burait buts similar to the one de-
stroyed, with their horses, by the avalanche,
they had seen no human habitation, and they
had not been discovered by the robbers of the
Baikals, who had, as we bave just seen, almost
annihilated Leo Golitzin’s detachment,

“On every band there were to be seen evi-
dences of the breaking up of winter; the snow
had that peculiar glitter which the rays of the
sun impart to it nowhere but in the far North,
Huge blankets of white were dropping ccn-
stantly from the trees, and Sissi, the Cossack,
shook his head whenever he noticed these signs
of approaching spring.

In one of the great mountain forests which |

the exiles were obliged to cross, the keen eyes
of the young Cossack discovered trails of fur-
bearing animals, and it was not long before
twenty snares were set for the sly creatures.
Theso st. ves Sissi formed from the wire he had
secretly purchased with Sergius’s roubles in

 

 

path made by sables and marten. In order to
pursue their way in either direction the animals
would put their heads through the noose, which,
forced from the wooden trigger, would relieve
the bent sapling and let it spring back to its
original position, carrying the unlucky victim
into mid-air, ;

Sissi had snared for furs before; he knew the
habits of the many animals that people the Si-
berian woods, and his attempts to capture them
were not bootless.

“Do you not think that we have avoided Leo
Golitzin?” was the question that Volga put to
Ivan Pouschin one evening just as he and Sissi
were about to carry some snares to a spot dis-

‘“‘T hope we have,” was the reply, as Ivan’s
face brightened with a trustful smile.

“T know that you have said, ‘Never sing un-
til we are out of the forest,’” quickly answered
Volga. ‘‘We are nearing Irkutsk, and it has
snowed heavily behind us. Ought we not to be
thankful, Ivan?”

“Weare that, many times a day. Leo may
have been driven back by the snow, or, as Sissi
says and hopes, he may have run afoul of the
Buraits.”

Deep in the midst of a monster Siberian
forest, broken by dark gorges, was the spot
where the Cossack boy had discovered “sign”
that would have thrown an old hunter into rap-
tures,

They had already feasted on Siberian hares,
which, with all their cunning, bad fallen into
the traps, and several northern partridges had
been spitted over the little fire, around which
for a few moments they had nightly huddled.

Ivan, if left to himself, would bave been lcst
in a few minutes among the gorges, from whose
crags. hung mighty icicles that glittered like
white diamonds in the rays of the moon; but
Sissi was one of the surest of guides, and led
him on with the confidence of an old trailer,
Long before the entire party had had recourse

make rapid progress, and, armed with sharp-
pointed staffs, they could leap ravines which
otherwise would have had to be bridged.

Took, brother!” suddenly exclaimed Sissi
calling Ivau’s attention with his outstretched
arm to what appeared a diminutive hut among
the shadows of the gorge in which they had just
set a few snares,

‘A bouse!” cried Ivan,

““ No—a trap.” 5

The boy Nihilist gave the young Cossack an
inquisitive look, which brought a smile to bis
fave.

‘* Let us go up,

The Baye acest advanced upon the ob-
ject, which proved to be a huge bear-trap built
of logs. The roof was logs fastened together
and held from the ground py a heavy beam
supported in its turn by a trigger. This trigger
was baited with a piece of raw meat, long siuce
frozen, but as yet, as Sissi said, the victim had
not entered the trap te be crushed by the pon-

derous roof.
led by curiosity, was examining

Ivan, imps
the trap. when Sissi stole away for the purpose

” said Ivan.

 

 

 

  
 

 

ws

 

 

 

The Boy Exiles of Siberia. i?

 

of settihg the remaining snares. Night had set
in, but it was one of rare loveliness. The snow
around shone dike a mirror of silver, and the
huge icicles that hung pendent from tree and
crag reminded Ivan of the fairy caverns de-
scribed in tales of Russian folk-lore.

The boy was viewing the surrounding scenery
when he was suddenly startled by the fall of
the bear-trap. Turning quickly, he saw the
hind quarters of some animal! struggling in the
snow just beyond the end of the logs, and the
next instant he bounded forward to see what
the old trap had caught.

It was not a bear—that Ivan could see at a
glance, for bruin would not have escaped at all
after springing the trap. The victim was a
wolf—a shrewd old fellow who had carefully
inspected the trap before entering. He had
reached a conclusion that the triggers had long
before rotted away, or fell over, leaving the
roof supported by the cross-beam, but had sud-
denly discovered his mistake.

As it was, by a quick spring backward and
the tardiness of the roof in descending, he had
almost escaped, and Ivan saw that a strong pull
on his part would release the wolf. So he
grasped the struggling legs and pulled back-
ward with all his might.

If Sissi had been near he might have laughed
at the figure Ivan cut in his effort to loosen the
victim of the trap; but the Cossack boy was a
good many steps away dreamless of the excit-
ing adventure that had fallen to his companion’s
ot.
“You must come out, my brother!” cried
Ivan, as he tugged away. ‘* A wolf skin will
bring a few copecks in Irkutsk, and yours, be-
mee whole one, will be greedily purchased.”

hese words had hardly quitted Ivan’s lips
when he found himself on his back in the snow,
with a mountain wolf as largs as a mastiff
snapping and snarling on top of him.

The boy did not intend to relinquish the prize
he had by main strength pulled from beneath
the dead-fall, but clung to the animal’s legs
and attempted to right himself.

A full-grown wolf is no mean antagonist
when he is furious aad exerts his ‘strength.
Ivan had never attempted to hold one before,
and he soon discovered that he had no mean
task before him.

“4h!” thought he, ‘if I could but give hina
blow with my hatchet. That would soon set-
tle the contest.”

This thought was no sooner framed than Ivan ,
released one leg and. seized the hatchet he al- |
ways carried in his belt. With this keen- |
edged weapon, the young Russian tried to deal |
the struggling wolf a death-blow on the head, |
but the animal baffled him until Ivan was al- |
most ready to give up in disgust. - |

“Ho, Sissi! Come antchly this way,” cried |
Ivan at last, and hear
the gorge.

“YT am coming, brother,” came back the re-

 

his voice echo through |
}

ply. |
At that rd moment the wolf seemed to put
forth strength until then held in reserve, In

- spite of the boy’s hold, he turned on him and

seized him by the boot through the thick leath- |

er of which he sent his keen teeth as easily aa
though it were paper. :

Ivan fairly shouted for pain, and with a ery
of disgust he let the anima go.

Away bounded the wolf with a yelp of joy,
but the next instant it was changed inte a howl
of rage and death, and Ivan saw it leap into the
moonlight and tall back into the snow «here it
lay still. ;

‘Where is the wolf, brother?’ asked the
young Cossack, coming up at that moment
armed with his hunting hatchet.

“Yonder,” said Ivan, pointing to the dark
body of the wolf on the snow. “Did you not
drop him with one of your arrows?” 5

Sissi’s answer was a stare as he held out his
hands to show Ivan that they clutched no bow.

“Then who shot the wolf?”

Ivan’s face was a trifle paler than-usual. Sissi
was far from being at his easé.

What if they had been discovered by some
hunter?

Anxious to solve the mystery thas enshrouded
the death of the wolf, the two boys crept for-
ward in the shadows of tree and jutting rock.
Suddenly Sissi uttered a strange cry.

‘ Another trap, Ivan!” he exclaimed.

It was true. The wolf in flying from the
Russian boy had sprung one of those terrible
traps which, in the Siberian mountains send a
oe shaft straight to the heart of the

ear.

It consists of a heavy wooden cros* bow, a
string, and the simplest of triggers.

The string is stretched across a bear-path a
few inches from the ground. 1t connects with
the trigger of the cross-bow that is charged
with an arfow, pointing toward the path. The
bear’s fore foot strikes the string, lets off the
trigger, and the iron-headed shaft, piercing
skin and meat, brings him speedily down.

The wolf had been pulled from one trap to
run into another from which there was no
Ivan Pouschin to save bim.

The two boys examined the wolf and discov-
ered that the arrow had passed clear through
the body. As the barb was not large the skin
had suffe ed but little injury, and Ivan had the
satisfaction of carrying the wolf from the spot.

“You do not know how to make one of those
traps?’ he said to Sissi who lingered behind a
moment for the purpose of inspecting the me-
chanism of the cross-bow.

“It has a new trigger—one I never saw be-
fore,” answered the Cossack boy.. ‘*I have
made many a cross-bow trap. I wanted to get
the working of that trigger in my head. 8
may have to make a trap like that one of these
days for Leo Golitzin.”

van uttered a light cry, and shot Sissi a look
of astonishment.

But the young Cossack said nothing.

He was drawing an invisible diegram on the —

Pan of his left hand with the first fiager of his
right. 5
“The trigger of the cross-bow trap,” mur-
mured Ivan smiling. 3
Not long afterward the two re-entered the
lonely camp established in the mountains, and
the eyes of the Potemkins dilated when Ivan

 

 

    
 

 

is The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

 

east at their feet the carcass of the wolf, still
pierced with the arrow.

Volga claimed the shaft for a trophy, and it
was placed in her hands.

 

CHAPTER X.
THE GREATEST PERIL OF ALL,

IRKUTSK is one of the most important cities
of middle Siberia. Situated on the north bank
of the Angara, and within two hundred miles
of the great Altai mountains the dividing wall
between China and Russia’s northern prison-
house, it assumes a deserved importance which
must not be underrated. It isthe great entre-
pet of trade between China and Siberia, and,
ike other towns of the latter country, it holds
an annual fair which lasts from the first of No-
vember to the melting of the winter snows.

On the border lies Kiachta through which
pee to Irkutsk the produce of the Celestial

ingdom. If the fugitives could reach this
place safely the remainder of their journey
would rot be difficult, but Kiachta was still far
away, and the most dangerous portion of the
trail was yet to be traversed.

“To morrow we enter Irkutsk,” said Ivan,
addressing his companions one night shortly
after bis adventure with the wolf in the moun-
tain gorge.

“Must we do vhis, brother?” asked Potemkin,
“Can we not leave Irkutsk to the right and
regain the Kiachta trail beyond it?”

“ Better make a bold stroke,” was the reply.
“We have disguised ourselves as young
Siberians, and as we are to enter the town
singly we will not excite suspicion. We have
outwitted Leo Golitzin, and—”

 

**Do you really think so, Ivan?” interrupted
Volga, ‘Tell me again that you think—wbich
means you believe—we have eluded this
Russian bloodhound.”

The young Nihilist assured Volga that he had |
almost ceased to fear recapture by Leo Golitzin, |
but a doubtful light migh: have been seen in
Bissi’s eyes while he listened to Ivan’s words.

Tho fair at Irkutsk was drawing to a close,
but the city was still full of strangers. The |
bazars, which in Siberian towns, are great
booths erected in the public squares, were stil] |
thronged with merchants and traders from all
aha of China and the further North. The fur- |

unter had brought the proceeds of his winter |
hunts to Irkutsk, merchants from Moscow and
_ Archangel sold sugars, wines and spices, and |
the peculiar produce of India, Persia and
Bokhara bad been sledded from Orenburg and
Astrakhan.

Into this peed swarming with their enemies,
the exiles had resolved to go. To atiempt to |
pass it by would be to tempt death in the
mountain passes on either hand. Around
Irkutsk dwell a class of nen who are the con-
stant spies of Russia—bronze detectives and
watch ogs who seize upon everybody traveling
southward without the escort of a caravan of
merchants, and if they aye without passes, or

_ documents, rush them before the lynx-eyed,
despot-serving magistrates of the town. j

hen the appointed morning arrived the four

fugitives separated within sight of Irkutsk,

 

Ivan Pouschin held Volga’s hand as long as he |

dared, and dismissed her with an injunction to
be cautious,

It is easier to get into Irkutsk than to get
out.

The exiles were not
entered the place. Indeed, they were not
noticed,

Ivan, Sissi, and the prince carried a lot of
furs, the product of their trapping excursions
among the mountains, while Volga, dressed as a
Samoyede girl, cffered for sale several pairs of
delivate snow-shoes which the deft fingers cf
the Cossack boy had manufactured around the
half-smothered camp-fires,

Although the four had agreed not to notice
one another while among the booths, Ivan
could not belp looking for Volga, for whom, as
a matter of course, he entertained the greatest
respect. His eyes wandered constantly through
the market-house in search of her, and he was
in danger of betraying himself, when he was
rudely: jostled by a’ boy who was driving a
bargain with a fur-dealer.

“Your furs are worthless!” exclaimed the
young Siberian contemptuously toIvan as their
eyes met. ‘Besides, your eyes go skipping
about as if they were watching the crazy ice-
cakes in the Angara,”

Ivan understood these words for they had
fallen from Sissi’s tongue, and he forthwith
left the Cossack and became more cautious,

He sold his furs in little lots in order to pro- “

long his stay in the market, where he was in
less danger of being watched. He did not
drive very close bargains, but, for all that, he
felt a few copecks jingle in his pockets. ~“More-
over, he had caught a glimpse of Volga who
had disposed of her snow-sboes in a bazar
presided over by a large Siberian woman who
asked the young girl a hundred ‘questions about
her goods,

“T used to know a boy who made his snow-.
shoes in this manner, for I taught him,” said
this woman as she admired the delicate work-
manship of the shoes, ‘‘He used to sit before
my fire and work, while I told him tales about
the witches that live around the mouth of the
Lena. One day my little son turned up miss-
ing, and though I watched for him, he did not
come back,”

Volga was anxious to get away from the
dark-featured, inquisitive queen of the bazar,
but she was detained by the woman's hand as
she was moving off.

«You have not told me who made these pretty
shoes, my daughter,” said the Siberian. ‘* There
is mere Russian than Siberian in your eyes, I
think. These shoes have Sissi’s knots and
splints, and—”

“T watched my brother Kocho make them,”
cried Volga, jerking away from the woman
whose mention of Sissi’s name hed sent a thrill
through every fiber of ber frame. “I do rot
know this Sissi whom you taught to make shoes
like these. My brether cannot be your scholar!”

We need not say that the eyes of the female
merchant followed Volga’s figure until it was
lost in the surging crowds,

The frightened girl wanted to run, but Ivan’s
command to be cautious held ber back, and she
restrained herself with difficulty. 4

 

uestioned when they —

 
iF

 

|
|
7

 

 

The Boy Exiles of Siberia. 19

 

She did not see the dark-faced man whom
the Siberian beckoned to her side shortly after
her departure. The man approached with
eagerness traceable on every lineament of his
countenance.

“*Yiook what pretty shoes I have just pur-
chased!” she said holding up to the man’s gaza
the snow-shces just bought from Volga. ‘‘My
lost son Sissi made them. Iam sure ofit. Are
they not exquisite shoes? The rich girls of
Siberia must pay for them before they strap
them to their little feet.”

The man who had started at the sound of
Sissi’s name could hardly wait for the woman
to conclude.

“Where is this wonderful son of yours?” he
questioned almost breathlessly.

““Would Inot like toknow?” was the answer.
“Tam not able to leave my stall, else I would
follow the girl who sold me the shoes, and
make. her tell me where Sissi is! She says her
brother made these wonderful shoes, light
enough for the feet of the fairies of the Ourals,
but I don’t believe that. They came complete
from Sissi’s hands, my brother.”

“Can not I serve you?” asked the man,
whose eyes were betraying a most intense eager-
ness. ‘ Describe this girl to me, and I will
find out where Sissi hides. You can trust me,
good woman. Look here.”

As the speaker finished, he leaned over the

, counter and turned back the lapel of his furred

coat, while he kept his eyes fixed on the
Siberian. ‘

“Ah! the emperor’s ar ejaculated the
woman, as she caught sight of a silver eagle
attached to the coat.

The man smiled approvingly. :

a Now, the girl’s description—quick!” he
said,

In a few words he was made acquainted
with Volga’s personnel, and before the gar-
rulous Siberian finished, he was hurrying vee 3
on the trail with the eagerness of a bluod-
hound.

Volga, meanwhile, had got a goodly distance
from the spot. Her entire stock in trade had
disappeared, and the hour for her to repair to’a
rendezvous which had been agreed upon before
entering the town had not yet arrived.

Raised in St. Petersburg, in the midst of
wealth and refinement, Volga was attracted by
the richest and costliest goods exhibited in the
market. There were shawls. from India, and
fans from Persia that made her few copecks
burn in her hands while she admired them, but
she could not have purchased the cheapest one
displayed on the various counters,

he was feasting her eyes on an unusually
fine shawl when she felt that come one was
looking steadily at her. For some time she had
not thought of the Siberian to whom she had
sold the snow-shoes. She had Jost her face and
her searching eyes among the rich fabrics from
the countries of the sun. :

As this feeling of being watched grew on
the girl, she ventured to look through her long
dark lashes without turning her head. Not far
away stood a man whose eyes were fastened
upon her. ;

He was clad in the garments of a Kiachtan

 

Beccuans, but his disguise did not deceive
olga.

At a glance she recognized him as Leo
Golitzin! ,

It would be strange if Volga’s heart did not
leap into her throat, as the saying is, at the
moment of her startling discovery. «

Volga’s thoughts flew quickly from her own
peril to that of her companions, Why could she
not lose Leo in the market and warn them? Then
they could _ Irkutsk together, cross the An-
gara, and plunge anew into the mountains.

The day was drawing to a close, and no time
was to be lost.

“T will try,” she said to herself, taking fresh
courage. ‘‘Heaven helps the innocent. May it
oe us from the power of this sleepless watch-

og.

Without having appeared to have seen Golit-
zin, Volga moved carelessly away, but soou in-
sreased her gait until she was far from the fatal
spot. But she was trying to balka man whe
had the eyes of a lynx and the movements of a
serpen

“Not yet, my jewel!” cried Leo, springing

after Volga. “‘Kermak was not mistaken when
he said that you would grace the fair with your
resence. The old fellow shall be rewarded for

is good guessing after I have re-presented my
prisoners to the authorities of Timsk.”

It was not a bootless chase for Leo Golitzin,
for suddenly, as Volga found her way blocked
for a moment by a mob of Muscovite women,
who were quarreling over the purchase of a
cheap Bokharan necklace, the hand of her hunter
fell on her shoulder! ‘

She held back a shriek with difficulty, but her
eyes flashed when she turned to confront Leo.

“Come with me!” he said in a voice ringing
with victory. ‘Ah! you know me? That is
good. I shall not have totell youmy name and
mission. You are all in Irkutsk—the prince,
Ivan Pouschin and the Cossack ferret. Are you
not going to walk erect? If you resist, I will
drag you through the crowd.”

Resistance in the grasp of such a powerful
ruffian as Leo Golitzin would have availeda
frail girl like Volga nothing, and a minute later
she was being hurried away by her captor.

“Clear the way, rubbish, and let me pass!”
cried Leo impatiently toa motley crowd that
barred his way to the main place of exit.

‘“‘Who is this fellow who plays police in the

arb of a cheater of his fellow-men?” was the
erisive retort. ‘‘Let him go round! He has
legs, and knows how to use them!”

Leo’s eyes fairly flashed. His rage knew no
bounds.

“Pll have every one of you whipped before
the Governor before'you sleep!” he roared.

A loud laugh followed the threat.

It drowned an exclamation at thespy’s elbow.

“Leo Golitzin!” were the words that fell from
a youth’s lips. ‘‘He has Volga in his power.
We are on the eve of going back to servitude!”

Quick as a flash the ‘speaker, Ivan Pouschin,
snatched a bale of closely-wrapped goods from
the counter at his left hand, and with all the
strength he could summon he dealt Leo a blow
squarely in the face,

“Take that, you false officer!” he cried, as the

e

  
 

Se ee eee

20 The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

 

Russian watch-dog reeled away bereft of his |
senses, ‘‘ That’s the way to treat these fellows, |
my friends. Now soil his clothes for him before
he rises,” |

With shouts of derision and joy the spectators
threw themselves upon Leo, and began to cuff |
ana kick him in no gentle manner, while Ivan
seized Volga’s hand and made off through the
crowd,

“Thank Heaven I was near to save!” said the |
boy Nihilist. “The crowd will not kill Leo, bus
they will cover him with bruises, He will live
to trail us again. We must fly!”

|

 

CHAPTER XI.
THE WORK OF A ROUBLE.

Fiicut, and that at once, seemed the only

hope of the exiles.

he people who appeared to sympathize with
Ivan and Volga gave way for them, and they
hurried through the market and gained the
street beyond.

“To the rendezvous!” cried Ivan. ‘It is near
the hour, but I trust that Sergius and Sissi will
{oi us before the appointed time. They will if

hey disco’er Leo Golitzin’s presence in Irkutsk.
Poor Sissi! He will upbraid himself when he
hears that he has been the cause of this fateful
accident.”

“No, no, Ivan,” answered the girl. ‘ Fate
directed my steps to the Siberian mistress of
the bazar. I fear I betrayed myself when I
started at the mention of our guide's name.
But I could not help it. It went through me
like a knife.”

Sissi, who had made repeated visits to Irkutsk
long before he ever thought of guiding a party
of exiles in a race for life through Siberia, had
chosen the place of rendezvous well. It was a
little ravine, or gulch, at_the southern end of
the city. Several tumble-down huts, unin-
babited’ and desolate, added to the uninvi'ing
character of the spot. As the shadows of night
were beginning to encompass the scene, the
pare was forbidding, indeed; but. Volga did not

esitate to enter the hut before which Ivan
paused, still holding her band.

“Whither would you go, brother?” she asked
as the boy Nihilist turned toward the door, as |
if about to leave the shanty.

“T must find Sergins and Sissi as quickly as '
possible; besides, Leo Golitzin must be watched |
for awhile, You are not afraid to stay here |
alone?”

‘Tam Prince Potemkin’s daughter!” answered
the fair Russian, proudly.

Ivan left the hiding-place and was soon re-
turning toward the spot where he had left Leo
Golitzin in the hands of the crowd which had
become a mob.

“They are giving the police work!” cried the '
boy; with astonishment, when he saw a lot of
stalwart men dressed in furred caps and gray ,
uniforms of heavy cloth charge a crowd of
boisterious Siberians with their official clubs, |
“T wonder if Leo has recovered his senses. I |
did not hit him very hard, but he went down |
all the same. Ha!” ;

Tvan’s exclamation was caused by a sight of
Potemkin emerging from the crowd,

 

One of the policemen was in pursuit of the
rince, who had taken to his legs, and would
ave escaped if he had not collided with a port-
ly Bokharan usurer, who held him until his
pursuer came up.

“That is bad!” cried Ivan... ‘‘ Sergius will be
taken before the Governor-general, where he
will be confronted by Leo. That will seal the
doom of all!”

As yet Ivan had seen nothing of Sissi, al-
though his eyes had not apparently failed to no-
tice any one,

“Sergius must be rescued,” said the youth,
with firmness. ‘‘He must not face Leo in the
presence of the Governor.”

A number of the mob had been arrested in
the charge of the police, and when Ivan darted
forward they were being dragged away by the
valiant guardians of the town.

A-yelling, hooting crowd, for whom the
knout, so terribly wielded throughout the
ezar’s domains, had no terrors, followed at the
policemen’s heels, The most courageous, under
the influence of the villainous vodki, went so
far as to pelt the police with an admixture of
snow and mud, and Ivan could not help smiling
at this treatment.

Sergius was among the captives, He felt the
peril of his situation, although as yet he had
not learned that his arcb-enemy, Leo Golitzin,
was in Irkutsk. The man who held him by the
wrist was a real giant. He had a bull-doggish

cast of countenance, but seemed chagrined be- -

cause he was compelled to lead a boy captive,
and not a full-grown man like his more fortun-
ate comrades.

Ivan took advantage of the crowd and pressed
as close to Sergius as he could. He saw the
doleful expression that Icw#ked out of the prince's
eyes, and attempted to catch his gaze, but vain-
ly. Potemkin was much dejected, and would
have kept-on without raising his head, 1f Ivan
had not caught a lance from the hands of a
tipsy Samoyede and thrust it between the po-
liceman’s legs,

The next moment the giant tripped on the
heavy stick, and, with a true Russian oath,
pitched forward against those in front. The
whole line was thus thrown into confusion, and
as the crowd made a rush to rescue the prison-
ers, [van reached Potemkin’s side.

“ Gild your captor’s hand, and that soon,” he
whispered in Sergius’s ear. ‘‘ We must fly at
once. Leo, the watch-dog, is in the city!”

An exclamation of horror fell from Potem-

kin’s lips, and he. exerted all his strength to
break from the man’s gripe, but failed.

He, looked for Ivan, but the young Nihilist
had already disappeared.

“Thanks for your suggestion, Ivan,” he said
to himself. ‘I will try the power of a rouble

| on this Russian Samson.”

By this time his captor bad ri hted himself,
and the crowd, which bad failed to liberate a
single prisoner, had been beaten back,

‘otemkin’s left hand was free, and it was
into the pocket on that side of his coat thr t he
Lad dropped the proceeds of bis. sale of skins.
His riches consisted of four roubles and a quan-
tity of copecks—the small coin of Russia—and
one of the former he slipped, unperceived, into
the palm of his conductor.

 

i
}
i
i

 

  

 

 
 

eee

 

 

 

 

  

The Boy Exiles of Siberia. 21

 

At the same momert he happened to look up
and noted the change which came to the police-
man’ face. The dull eyes fairly gvittered as
they sent down to the boy their acknowledg-
ment of his bribe,

Potemkin felt the vise-like grasp of his con-
ductor relax, as his other hand closed on the
coin, and a minute later he was free. _

The boy could hardly contain his joy, and,
watching his opportunity, he slipped toward
the mob, whose ranks immediately opened to
receive him.

“Money opens hands as well as locks,” ex-
claimed Sergius, as he was helped on by the
people, who were overjoyed at his escape,
though if many had known his true character,
they would have arrested him themselves and
esccrted him with force to the Governor,

“ Get out of town, my little one!” was the ad-
vice Sergius heard from every side.

“That I will do, never fear,” he would reply.

He had reached the edge of the mob, whose
numbers had begun to diminish, as the Govern-
or’s palace was near at hand, when there fell
upon his ears a voice which had a startling
sound:

“Ho, there! I want. the boy—the little one—
arrestéd in the square,” said this yuice, and
then it continued, as the motley mob recog-
nized the speaker: ‘‘ Stand back, Siberian mud-
balls! Iam not Kafan, the Kiachta merchant,
now. I am Colonel Golitzin, of the czar’s
Secret Corps!”

Sergius did not need the last sentence—pom-
pously spoken—to tell bim the identity of the
man who was clad in a Russian uniform, some-
what soiled and dirty.

“My evil genius! The watch-dog of my
foes!” fell from his lips, as he slunk away with-
out catching Leo’s eye,

The Russian spy’s voice had halted both
crowd and detachment of police.

“The boy!” demanded Leo, furiously. “TI
must have him!”

The policemen stared into each other’s faces,
Lut before the most composed could speak, Leo
threw himself among them, and threatened
every one with the knout if the boy prisoner
was not instantly given up.

Sergius tarried no longer, but made off at a
gait which he thought would excite no suspi-
cion. He heard Leo, almost beside himself
with rage, quarreling with the police until he
passed beyond ear-shot.

‘I bope you will face the thick-headed_ mou-
jiks till dawn,” he said smiling. ‘The longer
you quarrel with them, Leo, the brighter grow
my prospects of China,”

ergius had scarcely ceased when a figure
darted from the shadow of a hut and a hand
closed on his wrist,

“Sissi!” exclaimed Potemkin.

“Yes, brother.”

“We are all safe if Volga—”

“She is not far away.. Swifter than the
limbs of the Baikal deer must our limbs be to-
night, and the fox must lend us all his cun-

ng.

Sissi the young Cossack whispered his last
words in Sergius’s ear as the two flew to the
rendezvous together.

 

All at once the heavy boom of a cannon from
the walls of the fortress fell upon their ears.

Potemkin gasped and shuddered.

“We will be hunted,” he said, stealing a
glance at Sissi, whose lips were firmly set.

“Oertainly. The cannon will go off again.
It will tell the people in Irkutsk that escaping
exiles are in the city. Hark! thore it goes
again, brother!”

Tho second report had not ceased to echo
among the nearest mountain gorges when
Volga sprung from the hut and grested Sissi
and her brother. :

Almost at the same moment Ivan came up.

’ The joy of the exiles at being united again
can not be described,

They stood in the shadow of impending
gloom.

Behind them was Leo Golitzin with the far-
reaching authority of Russia at his back, ahead
the deadly passes of trackless mountains and—
the Chinese frontier—the goal toward which
for days they had been struggling.

“Let us start again for China,” suddenly ex-
claimed Ivan, seizing Volga’s hand. ‘To stand
here is to court death in the mines of Timsk.”

These words were enough, and a minute after-
ward the four fugitives resumed that perilous
journey whose coming adventures were destined
to be more exciting than the ones through
which they had passed.

Guided by Sissi, they struck at Once into
the mountains, and before long the lights of
Irkutsk vanished from their backward glances.

“Ab! the river!” suddenly cried Potemkin
as a strange and horrible roar fell upon his

ears,

Volga turned pale.

They had just emerged from a gulch, a little
to the east of the city, and stood on the bank of
the Angara whose ice was cracking and groan-
or every direction.

hile they looked across the stream the
golden disk of the moon appeared over the rim
of a cloud and showed the exiles a sight that al-
most chilled their blood.

As far as their eyes could reach they saw
nothing but the heaving ice, lifted constantly
by the mad waves that rushed underneath.

ere and there dark objects ran hither and
thither.

‘The wolves are flying for their lives, but we
must cross the river!” said Sissi.
ee a soul in the gallant little company drew

c.

‘Horward!” shouted Potemkin.

“Forward it is!” responded Ivan Pouschin,
and the next moment all four were on the
treacherous ice with their faces turned resolute-
ly toward the opposite shore,

Bleak as it looked, it seemed to them the land
of promise. :

CHAPTER XII
THE RIVER AND THE PATROL,

Tue Angara, which rises in Lake Batkal,
thirty miles south-east of Irkutsk, is one of the
principal rivers of Siberia, Although it is one
of the tributaries of the Yenesei, it is a thousand
miles long, and, before Irkutsk, presents an im-

 

  
 

 

 

The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

 

posing appearance. During the brief summer
it is quite rapid and dangerous to cross; but its
current is most deadly when huge cakes of ice
crash against one another on their way north-
ward. It then becomes a thrilling spectacle,
and the roar of the mighty pieces, warring like

giants in armor, is heard far away among the |

mountains.

The cracking of the ice, as it rose and felllike
a rubber floor above the cold waters on the
night of the four fugitives’ flight from Irkutsk,
was the harbinger of scenes described above.

Perhaps the next day the cakes would part
company, and woe to the hardy adventurer who
would dare to stem the current.

“Not a word—not a shot!” said Sissi before
they had advanced a rod. ‘‘ The wind is blow-
ing toward the capital.
voices to the bloodhounds already on our trail.”

The ice groaned and cracked more than ever
under the feet of the exiles, and, as they ap-
proached the center of the river, their route be-
came more dangerous.

fortunately the moon, as if to aid them, had

crept behind one of the huge cloud mountains |

that towered in the sky, and the river and its
opposite bank were vailed in shadow. Still
from this Egypt like quarter came the howls of
a pack of half-famished wolves who had been
driven back in their advance upon Irkutsk by
the appearance of the fugitives on the river
bank. They seemed to be waiting for the hunt-
ed party on the opposite shore.

““T wish I could look back into Irkutsk,” said
Ivan to Volga, whose hand he held tightly dur-
ing the dangerous journey. ‘‘I would like to
know what Leo Golitzin is doing at this mo-
ment.”

“He is not idle. You may be sure of that,”
was tho girl’s reply.

The Russian watch-dog was not inactive.

The two cannon-shots had already told the
fugitives that their presence in Irkutsk had
been discovered, They might have guessed, as
was the case, that Leo Golitzin had brought
about the firing of the guns.

Hoe saw that, aided only by Kermak, the old
Cossack, he could not recapturethe exiles, es-
ecially when he had to contend with a s#rewd
iberian like Sissi. Therefore, in a loud tone
of voice, he boldly proclaimed the identity of
the four, and sent word to the commandant of
the fortre.s to fire the two escape guns,

Leo was no longer the simple Kiachta mer-
chant. His uniform and silver eagle entitled
him to respect and honor as the military ser-
vant of the Czar Alexander.

“We shall catch these infamous Russian
brats!” hoe cried, in his anger. ‘‘I will conduct
them back to Timsk in person, and Kermak
shall give each five hundred lashes before the
the doors of the mines close behind them.”

The Governor of Irkutsk placed the whole
military force of the city at Leo’s command.
The chief authority at Timsk had done a like
act on a similar occasion.

The chase was commenced before the exiles
had reached the river. They were tracked
through the city to the poe of rendezvous,
and the same cruel fate which had almost ter-

4

 minated their trail on previous occasions, guided |

It would carry our |

Leo and his followers to the spot where they
struck the river. :

“Can we cross? Will the ice hold out?” were
the questions that breke involuntarily from
Volga’s lips as Ivan lifted her from a cake
which was sinking in the icy current beneath
her weight.

The boy Nihilist did not reply, but his hand
gave Volga a reassuring pressure as he grated
his teeth, and cast a mad look over his shoulder
| toward the Siberian town.:

“Hark!” suddenly cried Sissi, coming to a
| standstill at the risk of his life on a piece of ice
| set in motion by his feet. ‘‘The watch-dog is
on the bank we left awhile ago. He is not
alone, I hear the voices of his soldiers.”

Though these words were spoken in whispers,
not a syllable was lost by the listening trio.

‘‘ He is acoward at heart!” replied Potemkin.
“Ho will not advance when he has put bis foot
on the ice.”

“Do not lighten your heart with such a delu-
sion, brother,” was Ivan’squick reply. ‘‘ When
a journey in chains to Sv. Petersburg stares a
haughty man like Leo Golitzin in the face, a
| shaky cake of ice is not apt to deter him.”

“True! Wolves in front, Leo Golitzin in the
rear,” said Sissi, smiling even as he uttered the
words; but at the same time his fingers griped
tighter the hatchet he carried in his hand.

uder and fiercer grew the howls of the
hungry pack waiting for the fugitives on the
bank that confronted them.

“We must fight them with knife and
hatchet,” continued the Cossack boy. ‘The
flashes and reports of the explosive shells, if I
used them, would be certain to betray us to
our enemies.” 4

Potemkin and Ivan resolutely drew their
hatchets and Volga, not to be cutdone by her
companions, followed their example.

Springing from cake to cake in their desper-
ate flight for life, the little party, led by Sissi,
finally reached the south shore of the Angara.

Sure enough the wolfish hordes were there to_
receive them.

“At them!” cried Sissi springing at the fore-
most monster who received a blow which sent
| him yelping and bloody into the midst of his .

associates.

“The mines or China!” responded Ivan,

‘“‘China or death!” said Potemkin as he heat
off a wolf which sprung like a mad mastiff at
his throat.

It was a fierce battle, but the brave four did
!not relinquish an inch of ground, They made
| each blow tell on the heads at which they were
' aimed, and, although they were at times almost
_ worsted in the struggle, they at length compelled

the wolves tc yield and fly, though stubbornly,
from the field. s
Ten or twelve of the famished pack would
frequent the Baikal passes no more; they lay
stiffening in the snow, gashed by the hatcheta
of the exiles. os

During the fight Ivan saved Volga’s life by a
well-directed blow, and as the little band pre-
pared to continue the flight, he was more than
rewarded for his deed by feeling a soft touch
on his arm and meeting Volga’s grateful glance

“way,

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

The Boy Exiles of Siberia, &3

 

Ber lips said nothing, for her look was enough,
and the heart of the boy Nibilist beat faster
than it had ever beat before. .

Before they left the carcass-strown battle-
field, they looked as far across the Angara as
their vision was permitted to extend. They
saw the ice rising and falling, but not a glimpse
could they obtain of Leo Golitzin and his men,

All at once there was borne across the river
the faint sounds of voices.

* Hark!” exclaimed Ivan and Sergius in a
breath, but in different tones.

All listened.

At that moment the shriek of human beings
in peril was heard.

“Tbe ice yields!” cried Volga clasping her
white hands for gratitude. ‘‘ May the waters
of the Angara ingulf Leo the spy!”

That was the wish of all, although the lips of
the girl were the only ones that gave it utter-
ance,

“YT ean face the terrors of the mountains
now,” continued Volga. ‘Vengeance has
overtaken the Russian watch-dog.”

‘Then let us hasten to greet them,” said the
prince,

An hour later the four were far from the
river bank. Their path was the bed of what
had ouce been a mountain torrent. When the
suns of summer melted the surrounding snow,
it would again become a rushing river, roaring
like a troop of lions as it hastened toward the
Angara. Far above them towered the snow-
capped peaks of the mountain chain, and ever
and anon the night wind blew tufts of white
against their faces.

They had passed beyond hearing of the
noises made by the ice of the Angara, and the
shouts of Leo and his followers did not reach
their ears. More than once Sissi stopped and
listened with his right ear toward the stream,
The Cossack’s hearing is very acute. It is said
that he can hear a wolf run on the snow.

“ Not yet,” the boy would say, with a smile,
after each of these halts, and all would push on
again with renewed hope.

Suddenly a stern ‘“‘halt!” in the Russian
tongue fell like a knell of doom on the exiles’
ears, and Sissi, who Jed the advance, started
from the horseman who blocked the path.

** As I feared!” said Sergius to himself. ‘It
is one of the mounted police that patrol these
mountains on the constant look-out for persons
flying from Siberia.”

We need not mention that the hearts of the
exiles had leaped into their throats at their first
glimpse of the double apparition.

For a moment despair took possession of Ivan,
but he stepped back and drew his pistol at Vol-
ga’s side, It was nos probable that the patrol
was alone, :

““ Who are yeu and where are your docu-
ments?” quickly followed the “halt,” and all
who heard the demand saw a carbine outlined
on the moon’s disk at the patrol’s back,

“We are travelers from the fair,” answered
Sissi, boldly.

‘Your documents?”

“You have them, brother,” said the Cossack,
in a loud tone, as he turned to Pot mkin, to
whom he added, in a whisper: ‘‘ Quick! give

 

me those papers in your pocket. YWll wager my
tongue that the thick-headed fellow cannot
read.

Sergius did not reply, but placed a paper in
Sissi’s hand. It sae pelts Ef the soursal he
had kept during his residence at Timsk.

The Cossack boy approached the patrol with
we paper, which the man leaned forward to
take,

“You can read, brother?” said Sissi.

‘Yes, little one.”

The three spectators held their breath.

The next instant, or just as the hand of the
patrol of the czar was about to close on the pa-
per, Sissi seized his wrist, and, by a movement

nown only to the wild Cossacks of the Don,
uuhorsed him in the twinkling of an eye!

‘* A little help bere, comrades!” shouted Sissi
as the patrol struck the ground.

Sergius and Ivan bounded forward, and the
struggles of the guard were eee. terminated.
He was not injured, although Sissi had choked
him into insensibility; and a few pieces of rope
secured his limbs and left him helpless in the

ASS. Zz
Y His horse was plundered of everything of
value to the fugitives, and then, riderless, was
turned loose to be chased by the wolves of the
Baikal.

** Ah, your forethought has saved us again,”

‘said Potemkin, grasping Sissi’s hand. ‘I would

not have thought of risking my journal in the
patrol’s sight.”

The young Cossack smiled as he turned away.

‘Are there any more guards ou our path?”
asked Ivan.

“Yes, brother,” was the reply. ‘‘ The moun-
tains are full of them.”,

—_——

CHAPTER XIII.
THE BRINK OF DOOM,

Lro Gonirzin and his mercenaries were not
so near the fugitives as they supposed.

The treacherous ice had given way under
their feet, and several had lost their lives in the
seething flood. Leo himself had escaped by a
miracle. He again owed his life to Kermak the
Cossack, who, by main strength, pulled him
from the river when he was sinking for the
third and last time.

Asif for the purpose of siding the exiles in
their flight, the ice was breaking up every where,
and the spy’s men were eager to remain on the
north bank of the river,

Threats, curses and offers of reward failed to
goad them on, and it is possible that Leo would
have followed alone if Kermak had not held him

ck,

The Russian watch-dog was, therefore, com-
polled to wait till dawn, and, confident that the
fugitives had crossed the Angara, he went back
to Irkutsk, where he gave vent to his rage in
the Governor’s presence.

That official was somewhat nettled because
Leo had not reported to him on his arrival at
the capital, but the two healed their differences,
over several flasks of vodki, and, when the spy
left, he felt more than ever confident of ulti-
mate success, ees

“Tf you do not catch them they will fall into

¢

 

  
24

The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

 

the hands of the mounted patrol,” were the Gov- | “There are ten of them,” continued the Cos.

ernor’s parting words,

“The patrol be hanged!” growled Leo, ‘The
glory of their recapturé shall be mine—all
mine!” and he clinched his great Russian fists
and kicked angrily at a Siberian urchin who
just then ventured a polite salutation.

Relieved of the patrol by Sissi’s presence, the
three exiles pressed on until the shadows of an-
other night began to fall around them, .

They were now among the dense mountains
that lift their heads skyward between Irkutsk
and the foot-hills of the Great Altai Range.
Over the slopes of the last-mentioned elevations
lay the Flowery Kingdom, gorgeous in its livery
of green and red, They were fast leaving the
snow-flakes of Siberia in their rear, and when a
stray puff of warm air touched their cheeks,
Volga, in an outburst of ecstacy declared that
she inhaled the fragrance of the vast flower-
beds of China, This was imagination, as the
three boys knew, but Volga’s enthusiasm had a
good effect. It seemed to strengthen every one.

Sissi had several times assured the exiles that
he had made the journey between Irkutsk and
the border. The truth of his statements became
more and more apparent as they advanced, for
the cunning Cossack led them through passes
whose mouths looked like tiger dens, and
brought them always to better ground and safer
trails. .

‘All my roubles if he guides us across the
border!” Potemkin had exclaimed many times
while watching the movements of the wild child
of the Don.

Sissi had been informed of Volga’s interview
with the Siberian woman in the booth at Irkutsk.
His eyes immediately glistened and his face be-
came a smile.

“TI know Mother Pochonitz!” he cried. ‘‘She
was my mistress years ago, and itis true that
she taught me how to make those wonderful
snow-shoes, But while I worked she watched
me with one eye, and woe to Sissi if he did not
finish a pair within a given time, I never dream-
_ @d that Mother Pochonitz was at the Fair, else I
might have paid her my respects—when she ‘was
not looking!” and the boy Cossack’s Jaugh sound-
ed strangely throughout the gorge they were
traversing.

A fow snares deftly set had furnished the lit-
tle band with asupper cooked in a cave acci-
dentally discoved by Ivan, ‘This repast was en-
joyed by all, as they had not tasted fresh meat
since leaving Irkutsk. Potemkin ventured to
gore about the garments he wore—so unlike those

e dressed in in St. Petersburg—and Ivan told
humorous stories about the companions he had
left behind. Sissi was absent at the time, but
he glided into the cave at the end of one of the
prince’s tales and held up his hand enjoining
silence on all by the action.

“What's up now?” flashed across Ivan’s brain
as his hand flow mechafically to his pistol. ‘Is
it another patrol or Leo Golitzin??

Sissi did not reply for a moment, but stepped
forward and then whispered to all:

“The czar’s patrol.” ?

**Oh!” ejaculated Ivan somewhat contemp-
tuously. ‘‘ Better that personage than the wolf
. in our rear,”

 

sack, ‘And they have heard of us.” _
‘‘Tmpossible!” said the prince. ‘t Who could
have informed them, Sissi?”
“Signals have been waved from the moun-

| tain peaks during the day,” was the reply.
| “When it is light, the flags talk; after dark, t

fires!”

Potemkin did not re ly.

‘Where is the guard?” asked Ivan.

“Tn our path, brother.”

“Can we not flank it?”

oof No.”

The. Cossack’s monosyllable seemed to settle
the fate of all.

_ We can die, then,” meee. cried Ivan.
“Death among the mountains of Irkutsk is pre-
ferable to the triumph of Leo Golitzin!”

“So say we all!” burst from Potemkin’s
throat.

“We will meet death when the monster
comes, my little ones,” said Sissi. ‘‘ He is not
yet here, and, if my hands and our ropes do
not fail,us, we will live to handle the chop-
sticks of China.”

“We are ready for anything!”

Sissi now took a the strong rope the pur-
chaso of which in Timsk had brought about a
quarrel with Golitzin, as the reader will readily
recall, and formed a noose at one end.

‘We must gain the trails above us,” he said.
"We are ona level with the czar’s mounted
spies, They cannot get their steeds on the up-
per paths short ofa day. They are fine fellows,
those mounted police. They live in the saddle,
for they consider it beneath their dignity to set
foot on the ground.”

Having fixed the nope to his satisfaction, Sissi
led the py from the cave toa spot not far
away. steep ascent, dimly seen in the uncer-
tain light; rose before them, The exiles could
not but note that it was nearly perpendicular,
Here and there were dark objects, like project-
ing rocks, but the young Cossack informed
them that they were bushes, strong enough to
bear the weight of a giant. Over one of these,
Sissi landed the lasso by a dextrous cast, and
began to drew-himself upward,

Not a word was spoken by the three exiles,
and Sissi was seen to clasp the bush and to look
downward, as if with triumph. P

Presently the rope was sbaken, and the voice
of the Cossack came down in a whisper, dis-
tinctly heard.

* Come up here,” it said.

Ivan at once took Volga’s hand and led her
to the cord, which she grasped, and looked up
at Sissi.

A moment later the Cossack was silently pull-
ing, hand over hand, and Volga was ascending
as noiselessly to the foothold above. =.

When she. was landed safely at Sissi’s side,
Sergius and Ivan went up in turn. The rope
was now thrown over another clump of bushes
still higher up, and the ascent was repeated.
In this manner the cliff was scaled, and the dar-
ing fugitives found themselves at last on frozen
gran several hundred feet above the cave.

“We cannot flank the patrol, but we can fly
above it,” said Sissi, proud of his achievement.
“Now let us look down upon our foes, They

 
 

 

 

 

 

The Boy Exiles of Siberia. 25

 

are not always foxes, for they will smoke their
pipes when the lieutenant is atsent. If it had
not been for their pipes, I would not have dis-
covered them to-night.”

The party epproached the edge of the cliff
ey sealed, and looked down into the darkness

low.

“Look!” suddenly exclaimed Sissi. ‘‘ The
are puiling vigorously at their pipes, whic
look like little stars.”

Far beneath the exiles were half a dozen

sparks, which were the pipes of as many Russian
mountain patrols, but all at once they disap-
peared, as if a wave had ingulfed them.
’ “The lieutenant is among them now,” ex-
plained the Cossack boy. ‘‘If he is a tyrant,
they will get fifty lashes apiece for a few puffs
on duty.”

At that very moment a light flashed in the
faces of the four, and Sissi, almost always calm,
started back with an exclamation of astonish-
ment.

“The signal station!” he exclaimed. ‘Sasha!
we have climbed into a vulture’s nest!”

Not far away stood the person whese flint had
ignited the bark scrapings of a signal torch.
He was a bearish-looking man in a balf military
coat, heavily furred, and wore a bristling

‘ beard.

“Half Russian and half Siberian,” whispered
Tvan to the girl at his side.

“Half bear and half wolf!” was Volga’s

reply.

“What signal is he going to make?” was the
mental interrogative that each exile framed.

Behind the signaler was the poor hut he in-
habited, but the exiles saw only his face in the
glare of his flaming torch.

For a moment the man helped his torch to
burn by swinging it over bis head, then he
straightened his figure on the stone—the signal
station—near the edge of the cliff. As yet he
had not seen the four, but their discovery was
but a question of time.

Sissi did not wait to see the signal, but glided
from the halting place with his eyes fixed on
the man,

The next moment—it could not have been
longer—a half stifled cry burst from the throat
of the signaler,.and the torch, as it fell fr.m
his hands, enabled the exiles to see him pitched
headlong frcm the rock.

Volga drew back with a cry of horror when
she thought of the distance to the foot of the
cliff. Ivan and Sergius exchanged glances that
spoke volumes,

Sissi reappeared among them like a ghost.

“Let us hope that the fireman will not be a
cripple for life,” said the young Cossack,
“Some one else will keep the torch in the little
hut. The man had eyes like an eagle. He
would have seen us all, my brothers—then the
knout and the mines!”

All felt. that the Cossack spoke truly.

They were nearer dcom than they had
imagined, for the signaler had already espied
them, and, instead of sending the message al-
ready a he was about to betray the ex-
jles to their hunters, and summon strength for
their recapture on the elevated trail.

Sissi’s

‘al attack was, therefore, most.

 

opportune, and when they turned eway they
saw a signal flash against the sky on a far-away
crag.

But the man for whom it was intevded waa
not alive to send the fiery answer back.

CHAPTER XIV.
SISSI’S NOVEL BEAR-TRAP,

‘Wr owe our perilous situation to the patrol
whom Sissi pulled from bis horse,” safd-Iyan te
bis compauiions. ‘He has been discovered b:
his comrades, and, consequently, the agai
keepers have been warned.

This was true. ;

Fearful lest the mines of Siberia might not
hold the unfortunates yearly doomed tc dis
among ‘their damps, the Russian Government
keeps, as we have intimated, a strong movnted
patrol in the mountains that separate the Lleak
prison-house from Northern China. Fer es-
caping convicts attempt.to recross the Urals
into Eastern Russia, and fewer still brave the
dangers toward Kamschatka. China is the goal
of all the fugitives, for, once ia the kingéom of
the Celestials, they can make their way to
ale and thence, by vessel, to any part of the
globe.

The single patrol left bound and -gneeed
among the mountains by the exiles had been
found by his comrades, to whom, of course, he
narrated his adventures wiih the fugitives. He
was certain that they were convicts escaping
from Siberian imprisonment. This was enough
to arouse the most indolent mountain guard;
pipes were instantly extinguished, and from the
nearest signal station messages began to fly in
every direction.

The death of the signaler was a most fortu-
nate event. It certainly saved the fugitives
from immediate capture, for a message of the
kind he was on the eve of telegraphing when
pouncee upon, panther-like, by Sissi, would

ave summoned to his assistance a force which
the four could not have overcome.

Two days later the little party praised the boy
Cossuck’s action when they found a swift moun-
tain stream behind them, They had threaded
the darkest and most perilous passes of the
Baikals, and were about to cross the lower and
less mountainous region between them and the
Groat Altai Range.

They were getting to the south of the cold
line, so to speak, although the loftiest mountain
peaks wore caps of white. They wereentering a
country swarming with wild le, not a whit
better than the Buraits of the Baikal. Its plains
and timbered lands were the abode of wolves and
wild animals of every sort. Bears make fierce
onslaughts on the little stock the people keep,
and as locks and pens are there unknown, the
havoc made is usually dreadful.

‘‘ We must avoid the villages that lie before
us,” Sissi said to his friends, ‘We are not ia
the fix we were when we approached Irkutsk,
‘We had to enter the city, but these towns we
must and can shun.”

“Why, brother?” asked the prince.

“Beeause the signals from the mountains

 

have passed ahead of us, and the people would -

hold us if we had a thousand documents,” wag
the prompt reply,

@

 

 
1 Dn NT

26 The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

 

Under such circumstances it was of cobras | of the eager watchers in the tree soon discow
determined to avoid the settlements between ered bruin himself. They were not ahead of
the two mountain ranges. | the wolverine in this respect, for that wary

Sissi’s next sentence startled all: animal had ate le from the tree and was re-

“We must have some bear-meat, my little treating from the monarch of the forest.
ones; but we must not get it by the trigger.” Snufling the air with elevated nose, the bear
* Ivan thought at once of the cross-bow traps, | advanced upon the trap-tree which he soon
which had given them a valuable wolf-skin, | reached and felt with one of his great paws.
and mentioned it to the young Cossack. He next smelled of the ground around him, and

“No time to make bow now, besides we will seemed to conclude that the choice quarter -

not find the right kind of bow wood until we !

et into the mountains again,” said Sissi, shak- |
tir his head. ‘‘Bear can be killed without an |
arrow. Sissi saw many tracks to-day, and |
knows where to set the trap.” |

Night was fast closing around the little camp
when the confident an ingenious Cossack led |
every one into an adjacent forest. He carried |
in his hand the rope to which they owed their |
lives, and scrutinized every tree as he
advanced. |

At last he paused before one and drew his

 

ised overhead had been placed there for safe-

eeping by some hunter,

“He is going to climb!” cried Sissi, whose
eyes glowed with enthusiasm. ‘*‘ We willsce a
funny battle, my little ones, between the stone
and the bear.”

Up the tree with his eyes fastened on the
meat went the greedy animal. He made good

rogress until he retched the stone that blocked
is way. For several moments be eyed the
obstacle with an expression of contempt, then
gave it a push with his left paw which sent it

hatchet, then tossing the rope to Potemkin, he | several fect from the tree. Of course it swung
ascended among the branches which he began | back with some force and took the bear a smart
to sever close to the trunk. As they fell to the’ blow on the side of the head. This retort
ground Ivan carried them away and threw| brought forth an angry growl, and a more
them into a little hollow near by. + vehement push on bruin’s: part sent the stone
Sissi worked diligently until the tree was, further into spaco than before,
closely trimmed thirty feet up. He then| ‘‘Look, brothers!” cried Sissi as the stone
descended until be could take the rope from came back.
Potemkin’s hands, when he carried it to the | The next instant bruin was almost hurled to
nearest limb over which he threw one end. A/| the ground by the tremendous thwack adminis-
heavy stone was next fastened to one end of the! tered by the bowlder, but he managed to re-
rope. It touched the body of the tree about | tain his hold.
ten feet from the ground, but when pushed; The bear was now thoroughly enraged. He
away, it would swing back with considerable | seemed to forget the met overhead in his de-
force, | sire to triumph over the stone which he at-
A hbind-quarter of a mountain sheep, killed | tacked with all his might. Ho pushed it from
the day before by Ivan, was fastened in the| the tree with increasing rage, and tried to
tree twenty feet or more from the ground, | dodge it as it came back. When he succeeded
Sissi now called the bear-trap complete, and in doing this the stone would swing past and

 

suggested that all withdraw to the branches of
@ neighboring tree and await results. |

This was done, and snugly ensconced among |
the foliage which the keenest of eyes could not |
penetrate, the fugitives began to watch the
strange bear-trap. Slowly the last vestige of
day disappeared, and the full-orbed moon |
peeped into the forest, and revealed the trap |
and its bait.

An hour passed away before the monotony of
the watch was broken. Then the shadow of a |
mountain wolf fell athwart the snow. The |
wily animal approached the trap with a cau-
tion that proclaimed him an old bird. The |
scent of the bait attracted him, but it was)
placed beyond his reach, and he was forced, |
after eying it wistfully to pass it by. A fox
came next, and treated the bait in the same!
manner, but a wolverine began to climb the |

 

ee,
“Sasha! we don’t want him,” exclaimed Sis-
si, divining the wolverine’s intentions. ‘‘ Why
does not the bear come and drive the old fellow
away?” |
“There is your bear!” said Ivan. ‘‘ The wol- |
verine sees him and changes his mind.” \
‘ Ah!” burst from the young Cossack’s throat.
** We shall see some rare oer now,” |
The clumsy shadow of the huge Siberian
bear had fallen on the snow, and the sharp eves .

 

fetch him a terrible thump as it returned.

The battle was amusing to the exiles whosaw
every move. They forgot the dangers yet to
be overcome, and, for the moment ceased to
think of Leo Golitzin and the horrid mines of
Timsk.

Bruin growled fiercely whenever the stone
delivered one of its ficree thumps, and in re-
turn for the blow, he would push it as far from
the tree as he could.

“ Battle over soon now,” the young Cossack
suddenly exclaimed, ‘‘ Bear gettin’ madder all
the time, and does not see the stone when it
comes back.”

All at once the infuriated arimal sent the
stone so far from the tree that Ivan held bis
breath, fearing that it had parted with the rope,

“This blow will fetch him,” said Sergius in a
low tone, ‘

Back came the rock with resistless momen-
tum, end as rage had almost blinded the mon-
ster he received a blow on the head that
brought him to the ground.

“Done!” exclaimed Ivan and Sergius in one
breath as their hands flaw to their knives.
“Now let us skin the prize the stone has won
for us.”

They were about to descend in their enthue
slasm when GSissi’s voice stopped them;

‘Another bear, brothers.

 

 

 

 

 
    

 

Ne

 

om NT She: RRS te RE Te Rm amare Pe

The Boy Exiles of Siberia. £7

 

The two boys looked at the tree and saw &
second bear standing over the first.

*« A little fellow,” said Ivan.

“Not much more than acub. The stone will
make short work of him.”

The last word had scarcely passed Potemkin’s
lips when the young bear began to ascend the
tree. The stone by this time had ceased to
vibrate, and hung at its old place against the
wood,

It proved to be an obstacle which at once ex-
cited the young bear’s rage, for he gave it a
push as he uttered a mad growl and at once be-

an to climb on. But the blow it dealt him be-
ts he had made mucb progress brought him
to a stand and forced him to give it his undi-
vided attention.

‘“‘Him mad from the start because him anx-
ious to get at the meat,” said Sissi laughing at
the cub’s anger and impatience.

The battle proved one of short duration, for
in return for the little bear’s second push, the
stoue dealt a blow that landed its antagonist on
the carcass at the foot of the tree.

At first the cub appeared quite dead, but all
at once it showed signs of life, and started up
to make Ivan and Sergius stop in their head-
long speed toward the tree,

“Little bear hurt no one,” said the voice of
Sissi behind them, and the next moment the
young Cossack brought the crazed cub to the
ground with a blow from a club,

A lot of juicy steaks secured by the novel
bear-trap were cut from the warm hind-quarters
of the two animals, which had to be left in the
forest with their thick coats on, for fresh bear-
hides are heavy and very unbandy to pack
when one is afoot. The rope—one of the most
valuable possessions of the little band—was
taken down and carried away.

It bad still another and more important mis-
sion to perform.

T need not say that the bear-steaks came ac-
ceptable, for, in carrying them cff, the bunters
forgot to secure the bait which had lured the
two beasts to their destruction.

CHAPTER XV.
THE SUMMITS OF THE GREAT ALTAT,

“WourRAn! hurrah!” burst enthusiastically
from Sergius Potemkin’s throat one morning.
“ We can now descend to the flower gardens of
China. Timsk is behind us, so is Leo Golitzin
and the Baikal!”

Volga took up her brother’s shouts and clap-

d her hands for joy. Ivan Pouschin smiled,
bat not a muscle in Sissi’s bronze face stirred.

Perpetual snow was above the adventurers,
warm waters and flowers far beneath. The
had eluded the watchful patrol of the Baikal,
and could look afar and see fleecy clouds drift-
ing lazily over the rice ficlds of the Celestial
Empire.

After incredible hardships they bad mounted
to the lofty summits of the Altai range, and
could afford to rest and recuperate in the we
atmosphere by which they were surrounded.

Sissi stood on the little table-land occupied by
the party, with his oH penn face revealing
nothing. If the joyful exclamations of Volga
and her brother struck ¢ responsive chord in

 

*

 

his bosom, he did not show it. Once or twice
he elevated his eyes ard glanced at the lofty
peaks still above them. Many of these lifted
their snow-crowned heads above the clouds and
bathed them in the sunshine; but Sissi did not
regard them long. His eyes followed with
kin Iling interest a number of dark specks that
appeared to flo&t in the calm ether. To his
young friends they possessed no interest, but to
the Cossack boy the terrible Asiatic vulture
was an object of importance.

Sissi knew that troops of this bird hovered
constantly over the heads of travelers across
the Altai. They were the trailers for wrom
Leo Golitzin and his followers would look if
they were still on ‘their trail. Where the vul-
tures were in the sky, the fugitives would be
found in the mountains.

More than once during the flight from Timsk,
Sissi had watched these birds, for they bad fol-
lowed them on untiring wing. Fifty times and
more the boy Cossack bad wished that Heaven
would smite the sky trailers with blindness.

As he gazed at the distant birds from the
highest pass known to travelers in the Altai,
their bull perceptibly increased. They were
descending slowly, but surely.

“Do you see them?” cried Sissi, turning to
his companions as he pointed at the birds, and
before the exiles could reply, he continued:
“They see that we are not going to die for
them to pick our bones. “We have crossed
rivers, climbed cliffs, escaped Leo and the czar’s
patrol, and fought cff the four-foote| terrors
of the mountains. China lies before us. We
are. about to enter the flowery land. The vul-
tures thought we would perish on the way.
Sissi’s eyes have not lost sight of them since
leaving Timsk. They are going to fight us little
ones.

“Those terrible birds, Sissi?’ cried Volga
turning pale, for the numbers of the demons of
the sky were momentarily increasing. ‘‘I was
just rejoicing over the thought that we were
about to descend to the land 6f perpetual sun-
shine,”

Sissi's‘lips met. ee

‘Hirst, my sister, we must fight the black
princes of the sky.” oo

“With our fire-arms?” askedIvan. ‘‘I think
we might be allowed the use of them now. This,
is iS be a struggle for life, you know—our last,
perhaps.

Sissi replied by see Bry pistol and laying
it on arock at his side. Not far away grew a
number of stout bushes whose main stems were
six feet long, and as large as a youth’s wrist.

“A club apiece, quick, my little ones.” cried
the Cossack, springing among the bushes,
hatchet in hand.

His companions followed his example and
each soon possessed a stout cudgel with. which
they prepared to meet the strange attack from
above. During the last few minutes the scay-
engers of the air had rapidly neared the little
band, to whom their featherless necks and hor-
rid beaks were plainly visible.

Their circles had narrowed to small sweeps,
and the noise of their black pinions was deafen-
ing. At Ivan’s suggestion the four retreated to
@ narrower pass where they could not be at-

 

eee Sy ee
S80. The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

 

tacked by so many vultures at once, and there

they awaited the onset.

They had loosened their knives and hatchets
fn their belts, and watched the vultures with
ready pistols as each sweep of their broad
pinions brought them nearer,

“Ready !*cried Ivan. ‘‘The birds must feel
our bullets before we use the clubs.”

“We are ready,” answered Potemkin.

‘Give the command, Ivan.”

“* Fire!”

The four weapons were simultaneously dis-
charged, and three huge vultures fell down.
Potemkin had missed his bird.

For a moment the vuitures, as if alarmed by
the shots, drew off, but they had no notion of
relinquishing the conflict. With strange cries
that sent a chill to the hearts of the fugitives
they soon resumed the attack, which the ad-
veuturers received with the green clubs,

“No surrender!” cried Ivan as he aimed a
blow at a bird larger than his fellows. ‘‘We
are almost at the gates of freedom. China lies
at our feet. Death to the scourges of the air!”

His words filled his companions with courage,
and they wielded their clubs with telling effect.
But the vultures who had followed them so long
were not to be beaten off with ease. Their long
trail and bitter disappointment had rendered
them more than savage; they were determined
to end the contest for blood on the summit of
the Altai.

Although the four fugitives killed or disabled
at every gallant blow, the numbers of their ad-
versaries did not seem to diminish. The sky
was black with pinions, but, fortunately, not
many could attack at once, owing to the
narrowness of the path and its perpendicular
sides, still they could wear out the adventurers
and gain by endurance what they could not
take by main strength. ‘

“Tet me try my explosives!” cried Sissi,
thinking, at the moment when despair was
forcing itself into the hearts of the exiles, of
the shells with which he scattered the first
wolves encountered out of Timsk.

“Will they explode against the vultures?”
asked Ivan. ’

“That I dodo not know. If Heaven is with
us, they will not fail us now,” was the reply.

Phe Cossack boy beat off several birds whose
deaks cracked about his head, and then drew
a handful of the-explosives from his pouch. He
handed several to lvan, and kept as many him-

self.

“Now!” he cried to the boy Nihilist. ‘* Let
not one be lost, my brother. Throw them
straight against the bodies of the sky fiends.”

Ivan did not hesitate, and. the next moment
one of his pellets, correctly lauached from his
hand, exploded against one of the somber wings
from which several feathers were torn.

“Théy do explode!” cried Sissi for the first
time since'the escape exhibiting much enthusi-

asm. ‘ Wait till the smoke strikes the vultures’
eyes. Hal they do not like it.”

Tn Jess than a minute the two boys had made
usé of the explosives, from which burst a white
smoke that did not please the great birds,

‘I have some more!*cried Sissi returning to
the pouch.

| ened as if a suspicious sound ha

 

-

A few more of the effective missiles made the
vultures draw off with cries of pain, and they
were soon out of reach of the cudgels which had
deprived their forces of a dozen soldiers.

“They do not go far away!” remarked Ivan
who saw that the mad birds did not return to the
rare atmosphere above the mountain peaks,
‘Their eyes hurt them for the present. hen
the smoke of the drugs leaves them, they will
again attack us.”

“Tf we wait for them here, brother,” was the
young Gossack’s reply.

This was bint enough for the exhausted vic-
tors to leave the field where their flight had
nearly terminated, and, guarded by Sissi, they
retreated further down the mountain path.

All at once the young guide stopped and Jist-
struck his
ear,
“Stay!” he cried to his companions, and a
moment later he was climbing up the ~ ountain
side toward acrag from which a view of the
country last traveled over could be had.

The exiles watched him, and waited for his
return in breathless suspense. They saw him
gain the sharp rock, and face the north with
shaded eyes. For several moments be stood
motionless in this attitude, and when he turned
to descend, the echo of a far-off shout fell om
the trio’s ears,

“Enemies!” exclaimed Sergius meeting Ivan’s
gaze. “They are going to trail us to the bitter
end.

“Let us wait for Sissi’s report.”

The Cossack came down the cliff hand-over-
hand, and at last landed in the path where the
exiles anxiously waited for him.

He did not speak until he bad looked at Volga.

“Bas my sister the arrow that killed the
wolf from the cross-bow trap?” be asked.

“Yes,” answered Volga surprised at the ques-

tion.

“Good! We will make a cross-bow for the
shaft.”

‘‘For the heart of the czar’s patrol?” asked

van.

‘No, brother. For the base heart of the Rus-
sian watch-dog.”

‘eo Golitzin?” cried Sergius and Ivan in one
breath.

Sissi’s answer was a faint affirmative smile,

 

CHAPTER XVI.
CHINA!

ALTHOUGH the shouts of Leo Golitzin and his
followers, signaling one anotber among the
mountains, had reached Sissi’s ears, he did not
fear an immediate attack. In all elevated re-
gions the air is pure, and one can distinguish
objects at a great distance, as well as hear
sounds that emanate from a point far away.

Guided by the vultures nd the discharges of
the fugitives’ fire-arms, the Russian spy and his
men were pushing forward as fast as their
steeds could carry them over the uneven
ground. We left Leo, baffled for a time, on the
bank of the Angara near Irkutsk. He had sar-
mounted the obstacles presented by the mad
torrent, choked as it was by the heavy cakes of
ice, and shouted for joy when he found himself

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

ites

 

 

2

The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

 

once more on the trail of Potemkin and his —

friends, Kermak, the Cossack, to whom Leo
owed his life, remained faithful, and rendered

‘the watch-dog efficient service by keeping the

soldiers furnished by the Governor of Irkutsk
from deserting Leo and turning back.

Osce among the mountains, Leo discovered
the patrol, whose vigilance he increased and
stimulated by flattering offers of reward,
Night and day he pushed on, to be baffled for a
tine by Sissi, whose cunning the spy constantly
cursed,

“YT will arrest them in China!” he would

flash, starting from his moments of despair. “I”

will drag them from the flowers of Mongolia
back to the snows of Siberia. Stand by me,
Kermak. The power of the czar reaches to the
summits of the Altai, but we will carry it in
our strong arms down the southern slopes.”

And Kermak would renew his pledge by
grasping. Leo’s hand, and giving him a look that
was sure to delight him.-

During the day on which the Cossack boy dis-
covered their tireless hunters from the crag, the
exiles pressed on with fast-beating hearts. They
felt that the terrible pursuit. never for a mo-
ment abandoned since their night escape from
Timsk, was soon to terminate in one way or an-
other,

Sissi had procured a certain wood in the
mountain forest from which, with knife and
Latchet, he had manufactured a rude cross-bow.
It was not unlike the one that had proved the
deatti of the wolt partly caugot im wwe deautall,
and released by Ivan. The Cossack spent a
good deal of time in the fashioning of the trig-
ger, which was unlike any his comrades had
seen before.

When the weapon was completed, Sissi held
it up triumphantly in the last rays of thesetting
sun as they fell into the little pass where they
had halted,

‘See, my little ones!” he exclaimed, as he
took the shaft from Volga’s hand and fitted it
in the groove. ‘‘ It fits like a copeck in the cor-
ner of a miser’s pocket. How strong the bow
is! Why, it would send an arrow clear through
the bloodhound that bays at our heels.”

‘He is going to shoot Leo Golitzin!” whis-
pered Volga, in a voice that reached Sissi’s keen
ears,

** Nu,” answered the boy.
spring the trap himself,”

‘The trap?

** The cross. bow trap which the hunters of the
Baikal set for the prowling bear.”

By detours through passes known only to
Sissi, as it seemed, the little band of fugitives
hed kept ahead of their pursuers all day. Over-
head tbe beaten vultures hovered like demons
of doom, If they could not put an end to the
mountain trail, they seemed determined to keep
Leo Golitzin informed as to the exiles’ progress,

“They come! Ican hear the hoofs of their
horses on the rocks,”

These words fell from Ivan Pouschin’s lips
while the exiles stood in the sbadow of a huge
rock and waited for Sissi, who bad retraced his
steps over the path just trodden.

“Then let us fly!” was Volya’s response.

** Without Sissi, sister? That would be aban-

“Leo is going to

‘tone of command to his men.

 

  
 
   
    
    
  
    
   
 
    
  
 
   
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    
   
   
   
  
  
   
  
 
 
 
 
 
   

donment,” replied Sergius, ‘He has bee
uardian angel all along.. We n.ust not dese
bin now. He will be here in a moment.”

When the Cossack reappeared the three no-
ticed that he no longer carried the rope and
cross bow which he had borne all day.

The exiles, anxious to learn the result of his
mission, pressed breathlessly arcutd him.

“The time has come,” said the boy, calmly,
“my little ones, we must fight Leo, the watch-
dog. The moon will not go behind a cloud to
give us the advantage of darkness, and the
swift Nobi is just before us. We are between
two foes, the river and Leo Golitzin. We must
overcome one before we can successiully cope
with the other.”

“Then let us fight!” cried Sergius and Ivanin
one breath.

“So be it, brothers.”

To the astonishment of the two Russian boys,
the young Cossack drew his pistol and dis-
charred it into the air overhead. :

“They will come swift now,” he said, with a
meaning smile, as he lowered the weapon,

“Do you want Leo to rush upon us?”

“That I do.”

“ Why ?

“ Follow Sissi and see, little ones.”

As he spoke Sissi rushed forward, followed
by the three exiles. They did not sdvance far
before the Cossack halted and pointed to the
cross-how fastened to a tree at a short distance
from the ground, The arrow, carried so long
by Volga, lay in the groove, ard a rope stretch-
ed across the trail almost breast high to a horse,
was connected with the trigger upon which
Sissi had spent so much time.

In answer to the pistol-shot a shout of defi-
ance had already been borne to the quartette’s
ears, and while the exiles irspected the trap
that had been set for a buman victim, Sissi Jift-
ed his voice and sent it echoing among the de-
files arouna them.

** Come on, Leo, the paid spy!” shouted Sissi,
Tf you find us you may take us back to Timsk
and the mines; but these mountsivs are full of
hiding-places. You have the eyes of an eagle,
and the teeth of a Siberian bloodhound, but a
little water keeps you from crossing a river be-
cause you are a coward. Then, come on and
find us, Leo, the coward—if you can /”

“Forward!” came back the voice of Leo, in a
““Ten roubles to
the man who first touches the Cossack wolf,
But if you outstrip me, your horses will have to
grow wings.”

“*Come; we must not encounter them here.”

The little band withdrew a few paces, and
with their backs to the rushing river—the last
between them and Chinese soil—they waited
for the foe.

The wild snorts of horses struck by cruel

urs and the clattering of hoofs made an in-

escribable din that gauged the enemy’s ad-
vance.

‘*T will reach them first!” cried 3 loud vofce
“Your steeds scarcely lift their feet, snails!
ee hour of triumph has come at
as

“Ready!” spoke Sissi, in a low tone, in re-
sponse to this boast.
 
  
 

 

 

The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

 

e next moment there rose on the air a ter-
rible shriek. It brought a sardonic smile to the
boy Cossack’s lips, and he started forward with
an exclamation of victory as a riderless horse
dashed into the moonlight.

Almost instantly the charge ended.

“What means this?” asked Potemkin.

“ Leo’s horse sprung the cross bow trap,” was
vhe Cossack’s answer. ‘* The wolves of Siberia
have gathered round their fallen leader, Shall
we fae forward and pour a volley into the
pack?

“No, no!” exclaimed Volga, with a shudder.
‘Tot us hasten on. They dare not follow us on
Chinese territory.”

“They dare anything, sister,” Potemkin cried.

The hoof-beats of the riderless horse were
dying away in the distance.

Leo Golitzin had met his fate,

Riding ahead of his band, in his eagerness to
close with the fugitives be had trailed so long,
his horse had struck the rope stretched across
tke mountain pass.

The next second the twang of the deadly Si-
berian cross-bow smote his ears, and, pierced

almost through by the barbed shaft fired at |

such short range, he reeled from the saddle to
strike the ground under the very hoofs of Ker-
m2k’s horse. z

‘Help Kermak!”

The faithful Cossack leaped to the ground,
and picked up his dying captain. His eyes
flashed fire when they fell upon the arrow that
had done the fatal work.

The next moment the rest of the band came

up. ;

Ms Follow?” cried Kermack, ‘‘ Leave me to
bear the last message of my hetman to St.
Petersburg.”

Bat the soldiers shrunk from the trail, and
cast fearful glances at the motionless cross-bow
which had not been made in vain,

** Dogs!” roared the Cossack, coloring. ‘‘Then

o back to your kennels in the barracks at!
rkutsk! Kermack will follow the convicts |

alone, He willavenge Leo’s death, even though
be has to follow the killer through tie Lund of
Flowers.”

The soldiers took the old Cossack at his word
and drew back,

Leo Golitzin, being beyond human help,
could not poy. the heavy rewards he had

vromised, hy, then, should they follow
Cermack?

Left alone with his chief, the Cossack placed
Leo on his horse and started Scheanil, Hoe
knew the location of a village on the banks of
the Nobi not far from the fatal spot, —~

“Stand by me, Kermack,” groaned - Leo,
“ We will catch them yet.”

* Kermack will remain to the énd.”

Half an hour later the faithful Cossaek
carried his chief into a poor but and laid bim
Jown on a straw cot in the light of a torch
which a dark-faced woman held over bim.

‘He is dead!” exclaimed this woman, shrink-
ing away.

‘Kermack’s hetman is not dead!”
“Took at him, Kossack.”
F rwmak fixed his eyes on Leo’s face for a mo-

| ment, and the woman saw him give a violend

start.

The watch-dog of Russia wasdead. He had
expired in the arms of the most faithful servant
who had ever followed his fortunes,

The exiles need fear him no longer, for Sissi’s
bow-string had twanged his doom on the Mon-
golian side of the great Altai, and a career,
written in blood and stamped by all manner o
crimes from boyhood, had reached an unregret-
ted conclusion,

But Kermak: still lived, and he was an aven-

er.

“Courage, little ones!” burst from Sissi’s
throat at the moment when the old Cossack laid
Leo down in the but. ‘I see the glitter of a
thousand lights. The mandarins and all the

ople of Kaifoh are celebrating the Feast of

auterus, Siberia, Leo Goliizin, and the mines
are behind us forever!”

Sissi was actually enthusiastic.

** Behind us forever!” echoed the young exiles,
and with tears in their eyes—tears of joy—
each one shouted as the far-off lights danced in
Pee like the lanterns of an army of ignes

‘atut,
f It was the moment for which the adventurers
had yearned more than a thousand times,

They were in China!

CHAPTER XVII. 7
HOME AT LAST.

Ir the little band of fugitives from Russian
despotism had reached the borders of the Celes-
tial kingdom, their troubles and perils were not
yet at an end, if Kermak adhered to his purpose
of avenging Leo’s death,

This the old Cossack resolved to do, but the
fates were against him.

The inhabitants of the mountain village to
which he had carried the dying spy rose against
him, and before he could defend himself, he
was seized and bound for a Russian spy—a
person whom the people on the southern slopes
of the Altai greatly detest.
| For a while Kermak’s life hung at the end of

a very slender thread; put the most humane of
| his captors interfered with the plans of the
| bloodthirsty, and he was spirited off to a cave
ae he was left in the care of a strong
| guard, nae
| Leo’s body, after being plundered by the
_ half savage populace, not much better than
| robbers, was thrown into a chasm, which was

burial good enough for the role be had played
since leaving St. Petersburg with the Siberian
convoy that carried our adventurers across the

| snow-capped Urals,
Meantime the four had pushed on toward
, Kiafoh, whose many lights made admirable
guides. They successfully crossed the Nobi, and
were fairly on Chinese ground. The howls of
a few wolves echoed among the darkened
passes in their rear; but they feared the hungry,
hordes no longer. ;

The village, or rather city, of Kiafoh—for

 

 

, the place contained over five thousand inhabi-
, tants—was illuminated by lanterns which bung

from every conceivable place. The Governor’s
palace, toward which the four directed their

ee

Ps ROS cased clam ean

 

 

 
“ly uncovering.

The Boy Exiles of Siberia.

si

 

 gteps, was brilliance itself. A Jot of jugglers
were performing tricks of legerdemain for the
amusement of that functionary and a select
company of mandarins seated on raised thrones
in the court. As the sight was as new as fasci-
_ nating to Sergius and Volga, the exiles watched
the jngzlers some time before they sought an
' au.lience with the Governor.

Hien Fo received the exiies with much
eordiality, which turned to admiration when
issi, who spoke the Chineso language, briefly
detailed their adventures since leaving Timsk.
. Ivan saw the Governor’s eyes light up with

gratification, and he knew that in him Russia

had a cordial hater and they a new friend.

*¢ Little ones,” said the Cossack boy, turning
abruptly and with a grave face upon the exiles
in the sumptuous rooms to which Hien Fo had
assigned them, ‘ the band of the murderer has
struck down the Illustrious Father since we
left Timsk and its mines.”

_ The exiles started as though a venomous ser-
pent had suddenly hissed at their feet.

“The Emperor?’ cried Potemkin, reverent-

e ee the truth, S'ssi.”
“ Alexander, the Great Father of the Russian
pie, 1s no more!” said the Cossack, sorrow-
Fully, and he then narrated the story of the
assassination of the czar as it had fallen from

H en Fo’s lips in Chinese during the interview

just closed.

_The three were profoundly impressed, for,

although they had been doomed to Siberia by
persons acting for tho czar, they knew that
_ Alexander himself had not been made cogni-
zint of their sufferings,
Ivan Pouschin, boy Nihilist as he was, had
- never approved of the doctrines of assassina-
4 preached by the brainless fanatics of the
Order.
_ “Alexander the Third will listen to my
story!” cried Sergius, turning to Ivan, who
wore a dejected countenance, ‘‘Never mind,
brother. He will listen also to yours, for I will
speak for you.”

“So will I,” cried Volga, whose look sent a

thrill of exquisite pleasure to the boy’s heart.
_ “They have plotted for the Potemkin roubles
—the villains who have po etiipae Sergius
Potemkin and his love, Vera—shall be bitterly
disappointed!” almost hissed the prince. “I
swear here, in the presence of all, that they

shall see the snows of the Urals and the gloom |

he continued,

»' the dripping mines of Timsk!”
of the dripping Fc

“We have suffered. They shall suffer.
the future be their harvest!”

Two montbs after the arrival of the adven-
turers at Kiafoh, a messenger from St. Peters-
 turg entered the-city bearing what few exiles
live to see—an Imperial] Pardon.

- It granted freedom from surveillance and ar-
rest to the Potemkins and Ivan Pduschin, and

ordered them to report in person at the Russian.

capital at the earliest practicable moment,

 

The reader may rest assured that the fugt
tives cut short their stay in the frontier city.
Escorted’ by a troop of Tartar cavalry, placed
at their dispdsal by the Guvernor, they com-
menced another lengthy journey, which, with
but few exciting adventures, ended in the
shadow ot the czar’s palace.

All their wrongs were there righted, and
Ivan Pouschin had the pleasure of greeting the
friends who had long believed him dead. His
sudden appearance one mornin: at the build+
ing occupied by the American Legation created
immense excitement, and his narrative made
him the hero of the hour.

Sergius ae every vow he had formed dur-
ing the terrible escape from Siteria. He got
his property back, sent the p otters over the
route he had been forced wo traverse in a tum-
bril, and properly rewarded the brave Sissi.
The prince cffered the young Cossack every in-
ducement to remain in §St. Petersburg, but
thirsting after the dangers of ihe wild life to
which he had become inured, Sissi refused all
the overtures, and left the capital in the midst —
of a regiment of Cossacks, bound for the hh
van frontier, ‘ :

If the reader could visit St: Petersburg and
gain access to certain society circ’es there, he
would greet Prince Potemkin ard his lovely
young bride, and also meet Ivan Pouschin,
whose marriage to Volga is to be celebrated
with great pomp in the Potemkin palace the
coming summer.

‘None but the brave deserve the fair,” is as
true to-day as when it was penned and spoken
long ago,

Preserved in a certain apartment in Se: gius’s
splendid home are four odd locking hatchets, as
many krives, a few vulture feathers end other

objects, which, in the eyes of the uninformed,

are relics of no especial note. But they are
treasured as rdre possessions by Potemkin and
his sister, for they tell, though mute, the terri-
ble and never-to-be-forgotten story of the escape
from Timsk, and the eventful journey across
Siberia to the Land of the Sun.

Ivan has tried to obtain, but unsuccessfully
thus far, the piece of newspaper which con-
demned him to years of penal servitude where
strong men die after a few months of toil. If
it is preserved at the Department of Justice, it
is carefully withheld from him, and it is proba-
ble that the boy Nihilist will never get posses-
sion of the relic. Ee

As for Leo Golitzin, bis name was stricken
from the list of Government spies when the
story of his deeds was made known. This did
not disgrace the monster, for the corpse in the
vulture-invaded canyon of the Altai bad long
before been devoured by tooth and beak.

Kermak, of course, did not find the exiles
when the mountaineers released him, and he
went back into Siberia nursing the vengeance
he will never take. ;

THE END.

 
 

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Extracts from the New York Evening Sun.

TWO REVEARKABE

in only one sense of the word can it be regarded ava
aovel statement when the fact is here recorded that litera-
ture has given many heroes to the world, and perhaps
more than one reader will have to think a moment over
this remark before the subtle delicacy of its genial wit
strikes home,

But it is most essentially a half dime novel statement
shat will be news to many when it is added that litera-
sure; tf traced from the dimly distant days when Adam

‘as a mere child down to the present day, would show

t few heroes that in the eyes of boyhood would be
ven judged worthy of comparison with the two greatest

roes known to American literature, or, to promptly re-
veal them, Deadwood Dick and Deadwood Dick, Jr.

ae The modern heroes of fiction for young America,
who are now as countless as the sands of the sea, and of
whom the Deadwood Dicks are much the most important
* * * it is but natural that their * * * should bear
away the palm of popularity, and suchas * * * be left
far behind in the race,

It can be easily believed, therefors, that the two Dicks
are so firmly engrafted on the tree of popular literature

ys and young men, that their position is assured

* * and that they stand to-day head and shoulders

 

BG RCE OES,

above all rivals in the eyes of the public for which they
have lived, and for which one of them has died,

American boyhood, and that is a tremendous factor in
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fer than it knows its catechism, and millions of young
minds absorb the thrilling incidents of his career in his
everlasting warfare against crime and his never-ending
solving of impenetrable mysteries.

Millions of boys follow his stealthy footsteps as he tracks
his vicious victims to their undoing, and then, when the
victims are thoroughly undone, the millions wait hungriky
for the next volume, which on every Wednesday appear.
with the certainty of the Wednesday itself, and a new seu
of eno thrills go thrilling away from Maine to Cali-
fornia,

There are the volumes each so crowded with thrills and
heart-tugs that it were madness to hope to do justice to
them collectively and rank injustice to discriminate be-
tween them,

To abandon the idea of giving a few extracts causes in-
finite pain, but if once a start were made in that direc
tion, it would be cruel to The Evening Sun’s readers to
stop, and it is therefore better not to relate one single
adventure, Suffice it to say that the stories are clean and
well written,

 

DEADWOOD DICK LIBRARY.

1 Deadwood Dick, the Prince of the Road

2 The Double Daggers; or, Deadwood Dick’s Defiance

8 The Buffalo Demon; or. The Border Vultures

4 Buffalo Ben, Prince of the Pistol

§ Wild Ivan, the Boy Claude Duval

& Death. Face, the Detective

% The Phantom Miner; or, Deadwood Dick’s Bonanza

8 Old Avalanche, the Great Annihilator; or, Wild
Edna, the Girl Brigand

2 Bob Woolf, the Border Ruffian

%@ Omaha Oll, the Masked Terror; or, Deadwood Dick

-in Danger
i Jim Bludsoe, Jr., the Boy Phenix; or, Through to

Deatk

R ioe Dick’s Eagles; or, The Pards of Flood

ar

8 Buckhe.n Bill; or, The Red Rifle Team

4 Gold Rifle, the Sharpshooter

4% Deadwood Dick on Book: or, Calamity Jane

16 Cordnroy Charlie, the Boy Bravo

17 Rosebud Rob; or, Nugget Ned, the Knight of the

5 Gulch

48 Idy], the Girl Miner; or, Rosebud Rob on Hand

19 Photograph Phil: or, Rosebud Rob’s Reappearanve

90 Watch-Eve. the Shadow

1 Deadwood Dick's Device; or, The Sign of the Double
Cross

® vanada Chet, the Counterfeiter Onef

% Deadwood Dick in Leadville; or. A Strange Stroke
for Liberty

% Deadwood Dick as Detective

® Gilt-dge Dick :

% Bonanza Bill, the Man-Tracker; or, ‘he Secret Twelve

9 Chip, the Girl Sport

38 Jack Hoyle’s Lead; or, The Road to Kortune

%. Boss Bob, the King of Bootblacks

90 iter 3 Nay Dick’s Double; or, The Ghost of Gorgon’s

ule

@ londe Bill; or. Deadwood Dick’s Home Base

lid Sam, the Boy Road- Agent

 

33 Tony Fox, the Ferret: or, Boss Bob’s Boss Job

34 A Gan eof Gold: or, Deadwood Dick’s Big Strike

35 Deadwood Dick ot Deadwood: or, The Picked Party

86 New York Nei. the -ov-Girl Detective

37 Nobby Nick of Nevada: or, The Seamps of the Sierrag

88 Wid Frank, the Buckskin Bravo

89 Deadwood Dick's Doom; or, Calamity Jane’s Last
Adventure

40 Deadwood Dick's Dream; or, The Rivals of the Road

41 Deadwood Dick’s Ward; or, The Black Hills Jezebel

42 ‘The Arab Detective; or, Snoozer, the Boy Sharp -

43 The Ventriloquist Detective. A Romance of Rogueg

44D faulty Josh Grim; or, The Young Gladiator’s
qAme

45 The Montier Detective; or, Sierra Sam’s Scheme

46 The Jimtown Sport; or, Gypsy Jack in Colorado

47 The Miner Sport; or, Sugar-Coated Sam’‘s Claim

48 Dick Drew, the Miner’s Son; or, Apollo Billi, the
Roai-Agent

49 Sierra Sam, the Detective

50 sirira Sain’s Double; or, The Three Female Detect.
Wes

A! Sierra Sam’s Sentence; or, Little Luck at Rough
Ranch

52 The Girl Sport: or, Jumbo Joe’s Disgnise

58 Denver Doll’s Device: or, The Detective Queen

54 Denver Doll as Detective

55 Denver Doll’s Partner; or, Big Ruckskin the Sport

566 Denver Doll’s Mine; or, Little Bill’s Big Loss

57 Deadwood Dick Trapped

58 Buck Hawk, Detective; or, The Messenger Boy’s
Fortune

69 Deadwood Dick’s Disguise; or, Wild Walt, the Sport

60 Dumb Dick's Pard: or, Eliza Jane, the Gold Miner

61 Deadwood Dick’s Mission

62 Spotter Fritz: or, The Store-Detective’s Deco

63 The Detective Road-Agent; or, The Miners of Sassa-
fras City

64 oe ate Charlie's Detective Dash; or, The Cattie

ings

 

M. J. IVERS & CO., Publishers (James Sullivan, Proprietor),

$79 Pearl Street, NEW

YORK.