The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-09-08

side my stirrup over weary leagues OF
grazing grounds, and stretches of stony
barrenness, till at length he stopped,
pointing triumphantly to number OF
footprints, of horses, oxen, camels, and
men, stamped into the half-dried mud OF
a shallow intercourse, and with wave
of his hand toward distant wreath OF
blue smoke, sure sign of bivouac fire,
he received from mine the glittering
eagles, wrapped the gold in scrap OF
raw sheepskin and thrust it into the
salt-gourd that dangled by thong from
his waist, and then, with grin of leave
taking, trotted off homeward.
had not ridden half q mile toward
the camp fire, before saw, approaching
me, at q numbering amble, ungainly
enough, but swift and silent, some two
score of laden camels, urged on by four
horsemen whose lances and the black
Tartar caps they wore suggested their
nationality as Mongolian. Two of them,
as soon as they espied me, dashed at me
with loud execrations and cries Of,
"Feringhee Russky! kill kill |"
My revolver was out in moment, and
the sight of it produced some effect on
the wild riders, for they wheeled off to
right and left, galloping round me in
circles, still brandishing their spears,
until third horseman spurred forward,
calling out something which seemed as
if by magic to suspend their murderous
intentions, and then rode quietly up to
my side, and held out his bony hand for
me to shake.
"Brother I" he said, in strange jar
gon of mingled Turkish and Russian ;
every good friend, Batuschkal Has
English lord forgotten poor Sing-Sis"
1 looked at the mans broad,
fiat face, and did indeed
recognize q Tartar of the name
above mentioned, whom 1 had, a
year before, bought off, at an expendi-
ture of some six shillings sterling, from
Cossack patrol about to hang him on a
dwarf oak for being captured, redhand-
ed, as a sheepstealer. He had since the n
worked for us, IS o porter, for some
months in Kiachta, but the vagrant in
stinct was too strong in Sing-Si, and he
had thrown up his employment and fled
to the steppe.
The other three Tartars became ami
cable enough when they found that
their companion hailed me as friend,
and 1 gathered from the. rascals' talk
that they had been acting as guides to
the Cherinsk caravan, and had seized an
opportunity of making off with forty
camels and their loads, with which, as
made out, they intended to join their
cousins the robber Mongols. ALI this
Sing-Si, whose moral fiber was of the
coarsest, related as an excellent Joke;
but when he learned that was on my
way to join those whom he had Just de-
serted, his counteuance assumed graver
expression.
"Hark ye, English Lord" he said,
cautiously, as the others began to goad
on their camels with blows and lance
pricks, "we of the steppe love friend
as we hate foe. Sing-Si does not want
his former protector to leave his bones to
bleak on the plains, with those of yon.
der unbleached ones;" and he shook his
fist at the far-off smoke; "and. sure as
death, their shroud is spinning fast"
"What do you mean 2" 1 asked, anx-
iously.
CT mean," Kissed out Sing-Si, putting
his ugly face close to mine, "that we of
the old Tartar stock have no cause to be
fond of the Muskov, and pretty trick
we have played them. Hist did you
never hear of the snow foodW
1 had, in the course of my residence
in Siberia, heard vague stories of such q
phenomenon of the far northern steppes,
and nodded, waiting to hear more.
"The Russians will feel it soon, "
chuckled Sing-Si; "the blind moles |
Already the wind is from the north, al
ready the threads of the Fatal Spinners
span the sky, and we have led them
where there are no mountains to break
the fury of the blast; no barrier to check
the rush of the white wave that shall
overwhelm man and beast. Away,
Englishman, whip and spur, as you love
your life, for even here you are not safe;
and ride to the left, mark me, westward,
to the shelter of the hills. AS for me, ]
CO."
Aud, squirting his rough pony, off he
clattered in pursuit of his party. I rode
at brisk hand -gallop toward the camp
Lie bllOW uOOu lucIc CIOWdCu
on my mind all the tales that had ever
heard, of caravans, of solitary hunters,
or of detachments of troops, overtaken
by the resistless drift on those illimitable
plains, where not tree, not q hillock,
existed to stem the violence of the wind.
And as sped on, felt convinced that
Sing-Si's warning was true one.
On reaching the encampment I found
my predictions of impending evil re-
ceived very much as were those of Cas-
sandra in old Troy. Count Annenkoff,
vain young officer, with supreme
scorn for the civilians and foreigners,
ridiculed my advice, and declined to re-
gard my informant Sing-Si as anything
but scoundrel who had absconded with
portion of the baggage.
"Excuse my incredulity, mon cher" /"
he said coolly, "but your snow flood, as
you phrase it, appears too nearly related
to Sinbad's Valley of Diamonds, and the
other contes of the Thousand and One
Nights, to command credence; and 1
shall use my own discretion as regards
the route to be followed"
The other Europeans, If less supercili-
Gus, were almost equally deaf to all the
arguments which 1 could urge, None
of them had witnessed, though all of
them had heard of, the fell force of that
snowy tempest TO which the Asiatics
had oiven 40 picfureadue n name. and