Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-03-23
NO. II.
THE SN0W FLOOD.
Continued from yesterday

Continued from yesterday
had not ridden half a mile toward the
camp fire before | saw approaching me,
at 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 exc
cratiOns and cries f"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 around me in cir
cles, still brandishing their spears, until
third horseman came 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 10 shake.
"Brotherr' he said, in strange jargon
of mingled Turkish and Russian "very
good friend, Batuschka! Has English
Lord forgotten poor Sing-Si ?"
looked at the mans broad, flat face,
and did indeed recognize Tartar of the
name above mentioned, whom I had, a
year before. bought off, at an expenditure
of some six shllings sterling, from Co.'S
sack patrol about to hang him on dwarf
oak for being captured, redhanded, as
sheep-stealer. He had since then worked
for US as a porter, for some months, in
kiachta but the vagrant instinct was too
strong in Sing 81, and he had to throw up
his employment, and fled to the steppe.
The other three Tartars became AMIGA
ble enough when they found that their
companion hailed me as a friend, and /
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 in-
tended to join their cousins, the robber
Mongols. All this Sing-Si, whose moral
fiber was of the coarsest, related as an ex-
cellent joke; but when he learned that
was on my way to join those whom he had
just deserted, his countenane assumed a
graver expression.
"IIark ye, English Lord" he said, eau.
tiously, as the others began to goad on
their camels with blows and lancesticks,
1--WE of the steppe love friend as we hate
foe. Sing-Si does not want his former
protector to leave his bones to bleach on
the plains with those of yonder unblessed
ones" and he shook his fist at the far-off
smoke; land sure as death their shroud Is
spinning fast" ..s -
What do you mean ?" asked, anx-
iously.
"a mean" hissed 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 Muskoy, and pretty trick we have
played them. Hist did you never hear
| of the snow-flood ?"
l 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.
1.-The Russians will feel it soon, ''chuckled
Sing-Si; "the blind moles! Already the
wind is from the north; already 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 beast.
Away, Englishman, whip and spur, as
you love your life, for even here you are
not safe, and ride to the lett, mark me,
westward, to the shelter of the hills. As
for me, CO.
| And, spurring his rough pony. on all clat-
tered in pursuit of his party. rode at a
brisk hand-gallop toward the camp fire.
| The snow flood There crowded on my
mind all the stories had ever heard, OF
caravans, of solitary hunters, or detach-
| ments of troops, overtaken by the restless
| drift of those illimitable plains, where not
| tree, nor hillock, existed to stem the
| violence of the wind. And as sped on,
| felt convinced that Sing-Si's warning was
a true one.
On reaching the encampment found my
predictions of impending evil received
very much as were those of Casandra in
| old Troy. Count Annenkoff. vain young
officer, with supreme scorn for civilians
and foreigners, ridicnled my advice, and
declined to regard my informant Sing-Si
as anything but scoundrel who had alb
seconded 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 contents of the Thousand and One
Nights to command credence; and
shall use my own discretion as regards the
route to be followed"
| The other Europeans, if less supercill-
Gus, were almost equally deaf to all the
arguments which could urge. None OF
them had witnessed, thounh all OF them
had heard of. the fell force of that snowy
tempest to which the Asiatics had given
so picturesque a name and none were
willing to run the gauntlet of the prowl-
ing Mongols in order to elude danger
which might prove mythical, But Ellen.
who believed in me because she loved me,
used all her influence with her father, and
with such good effect that Mr.. Merton
yielded a reluctant consent to have his
own and his daughters horses resaddled,
and to set off under my guidance, in the
direction indicated by Sing-Si.
As we left the camp. lighted by broad
full moon that bathed the steppe with sill.
very brightness, observed that the north
ern sky was growing very dark. and that
the long filaments Of gray cloud had be-
come knit together, as though the yalkyrs
were indeed busy at the looms of death.
The wind, also. blowing in fitful guests.
had become piercingly cold. and our very
horses snorted and shifted the air as
though they scented the approach of some
yiewless peril.
| pv tho tin,a xua baI riddan I 0xraaso1