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

force, and there will be blazing roofs, and
blood spilling all along the Chinese from
tier, from Kara Sou to Dostvernik. We
are safe enough, of course, here in XII
achta, behind our strong stockades and
brass cannon. But there is scarcely q
post to the eastward that can be called
secure, now the Mongols are over the
border"
"Snrely, however" said I, looking up
from my desk and the invoice in which
was duly recording packages of black
tea, coarse silk, the white sonorous
brass peculiar to China, and other i'm
ports from the Flowery Land, "the Mon
gols will content themselves with sweep
ing off some focks and herds, and not
venture on attacking the settlements.
The Russian military power"
It's far cry, as they say in my
country, to st. Petersburg, or even to
the Wolga," grimly reioined the first
speaker, whose name was Gilfllan.
"These Tartar thieves know well
enough that, short of Irkutsk, there are
but some weak detachments to bar their
way. Even the sotnia of Cossacks has
been withdrawn, and, for the moment,
the whole of Eastern Siberia lies at the
mercy of the Mongols."
This was serious news to me, for al
though my colleague from the Land of
Cakes was quite correct in his assertion
that we were safe at Kiachta, a fortified
position too strong to be attempted by
the barbarian foe, there was one whose
life held dearer than my own, and who,
should the tidings of Mongol inroad
be confirmed, might be exposed to sore
peril.
/, Frank Richards, had been, during
two out of the three years which l had
passed in this out-of-the-vay corner of
the Russian dominions, clerk in the
firm of Merton & Paulovitch, the man
aging partner of which resided at
Irkutsk, and was, az his name implies,
like myself, an Englishman. Mr.. Mer-
ton, however, was one of those Anglo
Russians of whom many are to be found
in the higher mercantile society of st.
Petersburg, and who have taken root,
as it were, in the country in which the
greater part of their lives have been
spent. He was a man of considerable
property, and as member of the Fur
Trading Guild was possessed of certain
valuable privileges, which almost
amounted to monopoly.
It was with anger and annoyance that
the rich merchant learned that
his clerk was in love with his only daugh-
ter, Ellen, and that the sentiment was
reciprocal. Mr.. Merton, as was very
natural, had other views for his daugh-
ter's establishment in life. He was al
ways looking forward to the day when,
leaving the active conduct of the business
in younger hands, he should withdraw
to the capital, where Miss Merton, as O
we'll endowed heiress, might very prob
ably marry count, or possibly prince.
1t was pitiful antithesis to such exalted
visions that she should bestow her hand
on mere subordinate in the house OF
Merton & Paulovitch.
"I like you, Richards" the merchant
had said to me, not unkindly; "and il
you, and Ellen, too, will but be reason
able and promise to forget this folly
All well, then, there is no help for it,
/ see."
And thereupon we parted. was q
good inguist, and well trained to the
routine of business in that remote region,
80 that it was easy enough for me to OBJ.
tain employment in mercantile house
at Kiachta, at q higher rate of salary
than that which had hitherto drawn.
doubt, however, if should have cared
to continue any longer in my self-imposed
exile from the civilization of Europe, had
il not been that could not muster the
resolution to tear myself away from a
country of which Ellen Merton was still
an inhabitant. Even this poor consola-
ton was, it seemed, soon to be taken
from me, for the gossips of the colony
were unanimous that the ensuing winter
was the last that would see the Mertons
resident in Siberia.
And then, preceded by certain threat.
ening rumors, to which scanty credence
had been attached, there had occurred
the Mongol incursion, prompted, as there
was reason to suspect, by the Chinese
authorities, of whose sentiments toward
the rival empire pressing yearly closer
to their extensive frontier, few doubts
could be entertained by even the most
optimistically disposed of the motley
European community, Russian, German,
Polish, and British, whose task il was tc
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