The tribune. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1876-10-04

with loud execrations and cries of
" Feringhee! Russkyl kill kill |"
My revolver was out in q 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,
calliug out something, which seemed rs
If by magic to suspend their murderous
intentions, and then rode Quietly up to
my stdo, and held out his bony hand for
me to shake.
Brother !" he said, in o strange jar
gon of mingled Turkish and Russian /;
"very good friend, Batuschka Has
English lord forgotten poor Sing Si?"
l looked ut the mans broad fiat face,
and did indeed recognize Tartar of the
name above mentioned, whom / had, a
year before, bought of, ut an cxpendi.
ture OF some six shillings sterling, from
Cossack patrol about to hang him on a
dwarf oak for being captured, red
handed, as sheep stealer. He had
SINCE then worked for us, as porter,
for some months in Kiachta, but the
vagrant instinct was too strong in Sing
81, and he had to throw up his employ
ment and fled to the steppe.
The other three Tartars became ami
cable enough when theys Found that
their companion hailed me as friend,
and l gathered from the rascals' talk
that they had been acting as guides to
the Cherlnsk caravan, and had seized an
opportunity OF making off with forty
camcls and their loads, with which, as I
made out, they intended to join their
cousins, the robher Mongols. All this
Sing 81, 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 countcnancc assumed O
graver expression.
"Hak yr, English lord" he said,
cautiously, rs the others begun to goad
on their caneis with blows and lance
pricks. 'we of the steppe love friend
as We hate foe. Sing ST does not want
his former protector to leave his bones
to bleach or the plains, with those of
yol,ler unblessed ones )" and he shook
his fist at tho far-off smoke "and sure
as death their shroud is spinning fast. I"
I" What do you mean 2" l asked,
anxiously.
81 mean," hissed out Sing.Si, put
ting 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 food ?"
/ had, in the course of my residence
i'll Siberia, heard vague stories of such
phenomenon of the far northern
steppes, and nodded, waiting to hear
more.
"The Russians will feel it soon,"
chuckled SingSi +; "tho 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 tho white wave that shall ever
whclm man and beast. Away, English
man, 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, I
CO."
And, squirting his rough pony, off he
clattercd in pursuit of his party. Irode
ut brisk gallop toward the camp fire.
The SHOW flood! There crowded on nv
mind all the tales that 1 mad ever heard
of caravans, of solitary hunters, or OF
Aetachments of troops, overtaken by the
resist!ess drift on those illimitable plains,
where not tree, not hillock, existeo
to stem the violence of the wind. And
as sped on felt convinced that Sing
Sis warning was true one.
On reaching the encampment found
my predictions Of impending evil re-
ceived very much as were those of Cas-
sandra in old Troy. Count Annenkoff,
q N-aID Dff ~
for civilians and foreigners, ridiculed
informant Sing-Si as anything but a
portion of the baggage.
Excuse my incredulty, mon cher" I"
he said, coolly, "but your snow flood, as
you phrase it, appears too nearly related
to Sinbads valley of diamonds, and the
other contes of the Thousand and
One Nights" to command credence;
and shall use my own discretion as re-
CARDS the route to be followed"
The other Europeans, If less supercili-
ous, were almost equally deaf to all the
arguments which 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
given SO picturesque name; and none
were willing to run the gauntlet of the
prowling Mongols in order to elude
danger which might prove mythical.
But Ellen, who believed in mo because
she loved me, used all her influence with
her father, aud with such good effect
that Mr.. Merton yielded reluctant con-
sent to have his own and his daughters
horses resaddled and to set off, under
my guidance, in the direction indicated
by Sing ST.
As we left the camp, lighted by n
broad, full moon that bathed the steppe
with silvery brightness, observed that
the northern sky was growing very dark,
aud that the long filaments of gray