The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-10-22

our good provisions within. / have seen
what famished wolf looks like. and l
| should hardly think famished wolf worth
comparing with that creature. 1t was
! ravenous after what it saw. Up beside
the head came two punches of long claws,
! which wrenched at the wooden lattice as II
| to tear it down. But they were too weak.
The strips held fast. And then the thing
fell to with its teeth to gnaw way
through.
contrived to slip quietly from my dark
corner by the door, and catching up a big
stick, went out at the back of the house.
stole around as noiselessly as / could to-
W ard the window. There were, as l said,
young fir trees on that side of the house,
so that with little care il was not difficult
to approach the place unobserved. When
l got to within few yards, 1 saw that the
man-for the creature was a man-was
still hard at work trying to force way In.
| dropped my stick and made rush at
him, and had him before he knew anything
about it. He struggled ard-desperately,
| may say. But, bless YOU he'd not a
ghost of a chance with me. l am toler-
ably strong man still, as men go, and was
younger then. | could have undertaken
three such as he, and thought nothing OF
it. The poor wretch had no sort of condi-
tion about him-he was mere skin and
bones-no muscle at all. He was nothing
but walking anatomy, with few rags by
way of covering-and only very few.
All that he gained by his struggles was
a good shaking, for 1 gave him one that
made every tooth in his head chatter; and
then l laid him fiat on his back.
I had been long enough in the country to
gain some knowledge of Russia. l could
use it pretty freely to our mill people; and
blackguard a set of lazy rascals, as most
of those fellows are, Billingsgate isn't
patch on it. So 1 could make my prisoner
understand me. snow, then my friend"
| said to him, "you needn't take the
trouble to show any more fight. You see
it won't pay. So just get up, and march
quietly off with me to the OuchdstOck"-the
OuchGStOk being, as you perhaps know,
equivalent to the police-station In English.
But instead of getting up, and doing as
he was told, like reasonable being, the
creature contrived TO wriggle itself upon
its knees, and to hold up its hands; while
it begged of me in the name of the Virgin
and all the Saints not to hand it over to
the DOHtzid. 1t would rather be killed out
right, and was ready to be beaten as much
as | pleased.
My ragged FRIEND" l said, ''you are a
queer chap! Why do you object to the
police so strongly"
The poor wretch made no direct answer,
but only reiterated his entreaties that l
would not give him up. began to have
some suspicion of the quality of my guest.
Il am inclined to think" l said, "that you
are neither more or less than an escaped
convict"
Instead of attempting to deny it, he only
begged me to pity him as before.
Russian law is terribly hard on those
who in any way assist in or conceal the
escape of a convict. OF that l was aware.
But though l am big fellow to look at,
i IL
well as any man, | have always been a
poor, soft-hearted fool in others. l was
beginning to feel downright sorry for that
poor dewitt was not so much his prayers
that touched me as his looks. "Well," l
said, "suppose don't give you up, but let
you go. What them"
He would always remember ME with
gratitude. He would go on his way at
once, and do no harm to my property. He
was no thief. He had only entered this
drOT-thiS yard-tO hide himself, but that
the sight of food had overcome him; he
was famishing, and he dared not beg. He
had walked, how far he could not tell, per-
haps thousand versts, and all the way he
had not dared to ask for food, scarcely to
speak to a living soul. He was trying to
reach his own village, perhaps thousand
versts further. If | would only set him
free he would go on at once.
That was about the substance of the fell
lows answer. His appearance seemed to
bear out his statements, and | was in
clined to believe him. Its sheer nom
sense" l said, ''for you to talk of setting
off for a walk of thousand versts, if let
you go. You might as well talk of flying.
You have not the strength to walk ten.
You would only fall by the roadside, YOU
miserable scare-crow, and die in ditch. 1
should be doing the kinder thing by you
If l hand you over to the authorities. If
do let you so, l must give you something
to eat first. Come with me-"
The miserable wretch hardly believed
that 1 meant to feed him, and would have
run away had he dared. l took him into
The empty house. of which l had the KEY,
and fetched him as much food as l thought
it safe for him to eat.
So there ] was, with an escaped convict
on my hands. Had | been more prudent
| should have reflected that the fellow was
most likely a hardened scoundrel, quite
undeserving of pity, and that his gratitude
would probably be shown either by rob-
bing me, or if he should happen to fall into
the hands of the police, by getting me into
trouble to save his own worthless neck.
ought to have thought of these things; out
as L said before, L am a Soft-hearted old
fool. and neglected to do so
| kept him in that empty house for sew
eral days; in fact, till he had so far recov-
cred his strength as to be fit to 60 on.
Nobody knew about him, not even the
members of my own family, for if | was
doing a foolish thing had sense enough to
run as little risk over it as possible. Feodor
StepanOvitch, for that my convict told me
was his name, enlightened me on some few
points of his personal history. His native
village was, be said, in the government of
"ladimer, and he had left it to get work in
the town of Ivanova, where there are fac
tories. Every man tries to make out a good
case for himself, so did not feel myself
bound to place implicit reliance on Feodor's
statement that he had never committed
anything that could properly be called a
crime. According to his showing, the sole
source of his troubles had been a differ
ence with an OuUddRik-a police agent.
do not exactly remember the particulars,
but, of course, there was woman in the
business; blows had passed, and the
OuUdduik had, by false charge, procured
Feodor's condemnation to Siberia for life
This, l say, was MS story.
Feodor told me that his place of exile
had been somewhere far up the country;
and of the seventies he had had to endure,
and of the tyranny of officials, he spoke
bitterly. After making his escape, the
privations and dangers he had undergone
before reaching Ekaterinburg were such as
l should not have believed from his words,
had they not been verified by his ap-
pearance.
For Russian, be appeared to me to be a
not unintelligent fellow, and pointed out
TO him the difficulties he would find in
making his way TO Ivanova-a distance of
not less than twelve hundred versts from
Ekaterinburg, as the crow flies; and ad-
vised him, as he was used to mill-work, to
stay and find employment 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 fellow
was bent on going forward. He was re-
solved, he said, to see his family again,
and he was resolved to see Basil Makaroff
This Makaroff was, found, the OuradiRk
to whom Feodor attributed his troubles,
and IL seemed TO me that this narticnlar