The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-11-20

| ouShN w ha'S thOuShl vi tnose tnlHgN;
but, as | said before, am a soft-heart-
ed old fool, and neglected to do SO.
| kept him in that empty house for
several days in fact, till he had so
far recovered his strength as to be fit
TO 60 on. Nobody knew about him,
not even the members of my own fam
lily, for if | was doing foolish thing,
| had sense enough to run as little risk
over /, as possible. Feodor Stepano-
witch, for that my convict told me was
his name, enlightened me on some few
points of his personal history. His ma
tive village was, he said, in the Gov
ernment of Vladimer, and he had left
it to get work in the town of Inanova,
where there are factories. Every man
! tries to make out good case for him
self, so did not feel myself bound to
place implicit reliance on Feodor's
statement that he had never commit
ted anything that could properly be
called crime. According to his show
ing, the sole source of his troubles had
been difference with an onvadnik-a
police agent. i do not exactly remem-
Der the particulars, but, of course, there
was woman in the business blows
had passed, and the ouvanik had, by a
false charge, procured Feodors condem-
nation to Siberia for life. This, say,
was his story.
Feodor told me that his place of ex-
lie had been somewhere far up the
country and of the seventies he had had
to endure, and of the tyranny Of Off
cials, he spoke bitterly. After making
his escape, the privations and dangers
he had undergone before reaching
Ekateringburg were such as / should
not have believed from his words, had
they not been verified by his appear
ance.
For Russian, he appeared to me to
be not unintelligent fellow, and
pointed out to him the difficulties he
would find in making his way to Ivan
ova-a distance of not less than 1900
versts from Ekaterinburg, as the crow
flies and advised him, as he was used
to mill work, to stay and find employ
ment where he was. l was weak
enough to offer to help him and see
what could be done IN the way of get
ting passport for him. But the fel-
low was bent on going forward. He
was resolved, he said, to see his family
again, and he was resolved to see Basil
Makaroff. This Makaroff was, | found,
the ouvadnik to whom Feodor attri.
buted his troubles, and it seemed to
me that this particular hankering to
see this person moanta craving to have
his revenge. l confess that when l
had learned this much,, | felt no desire
to detain my friend Feodor longer than
was necessary. l was glad to give him
something more decent in the way of
clothing than he had brought, and
trife in money to help HIM ON his way,
and to be rid of him.
| never expected to see him again,
nor wished to do so and l was some
what startled when, few weeks later,
among gang of convicts which were
being marched by a guard of soldiers
out of the town on their way eastward,
recognized Stepanovitch. l was
standing close by when he passed, and
was so much surprised to see HIM that
l somewhat imprudently, perhaps,
spoke to him by name. But, will you
believe it 7---the ungrateful dog stared
me in the face and marched sullenly
by without word or sign of recogni-
tion. $50 much," thought l, "for gra-
titude !!
Some months later, when the next
summer was getting well advanced, we
had one night an alarm of fire. Many
of the newer mills at Ekaterinburg are
of stone, but the main building of ours,
being comparatively old, was of wood
1t was thing to blaze up like box of
matches. 1t was not, however, in the
main building that the fire had broken
ont, but in some sheds connected with
the main building by a range of shop
ping. This last was stone built, but as
i'll luck would have it, covered with
wooden shingles,
A good many people were soon got
together, mostly our own hands, and | di-
rected and encouraged them as we'll as |
coulds TO get the fire under contract But
they were a stolid heavy set of fellows,
those Russians, and the way in which
they take care not to over-eXert them.
selves at fire is enough TO drive an
Englishman wild. Yet there were
some few who worked well, and one
fellow in particuar,I noticed, a ragged
fellow, beggar, | took him to be,who
really worked splendidly, and in a way
that ought to have made many of those
whose daily bread depended on the ex-
istence of the mill ashamed of them
selves.
What between the apathy of those
lazy scoundrels generally, and want of
water, it was soon plain that the sheds
which were on fire could not be saved.
and that what we had to look to
was the mill itself. The danger of the
main building was increasing every
moment, for the fire was beginning to
make its way along the shingled roof
of which | spoke.
| could see what had to be done
those shingles had to be stripped off,
had ladder reared against the build.
ing aud called for volunteers to mount
| II. lHc HclSnb VI that TOOl lIOW lnc
ground was considerable, and the fire
was every moment getting more and
more hold upon it. To strip off tn,
shingles would be hard job and a hot
one, and it is not to be denied, a dan
gerous one. Not one of those cold
blooded rascals who had eaten ou,
bread for years would come forward
! stood at the foot of the ladder anC
told them | was going myself ! of
fered twenty roubles-6fty roubles-tc
any man who would help me. But i
was of no use.
Just when | was about to noun
alone,the ragged stranger fellow, whom
| had before observed working so W
gorously, came running up. He ha,
been too busy in another place to knoS
what was going forward sooner. Tha
was scarcely time for taking any pal
ticular notice of peoples looks, yet
had an impression that he was not al
together stranger to me.