The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-10-24

ner by the door, and catching up Dig SUCK
went ont at the back of the house. stole
| round as noisely as could towaru tne WIZ
dow. There were, as L SAID, young III trees
on that side of the house, SO that with ILL
tie care, it was not difficult to approach the
place unobserved. When l got within few
wards, 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 a rush at
him, and had him before he knew anything
about it. He did not give up quietly. He
struggled desperately, l may say.
But, bless you, he'd not the ghost of a chance
with me. Lam tolerably 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 condition about him-he was mere
skin and bones-no muscle at all. He was
nothing but walking anatomy, with but a
few rags by way of covering-and only a
very few.
All that he gained by his struggles was a
/ good shaking, for gave him one that made
every tooth in his head chatter; and then l
laid him fiat on his back.
had been long enough in the country to
gain some knowledge of Russian. l could
use it pretty freely to our mill people; and
| must own that for terms in which to black
| guard lazy set Of rascals, as most of those
fellows are, Billingsgate isn't patch on it.
| So could make my prisoner understand me.
'Now, 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
ouchastock'- ouchastock being, as you
perhaps know, equivalent to the police sta
| ton in English.
| But instead of getting up, and doing as he
| was told, like a reasonable being, the crea-
ture contrived to wriggle itself upon it.
| 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 polit-
zia. 1t would rather be killed outright, 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 po-
| lice so strongly?"
| The poor wretch made no direct answer,
| but only reiterated his entreaties that
| would not give him up. | began to have
some suspicion of the quality of my guest.
81 am inclined to think" / said, ''that you
are neither more or less than escaped con-
vict."
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
convict. Of that was aware. But though
| l am big fellow to look at, and in some
| things can hold my own as well as any man,
1 have always been poor, soft-hearted fool
| in others. | was beginning to feel downright
| sorry for that poor rascal-it was not so
much his prayers that fetched me as his
looks. "Well l said, suppose l don't give
you up but let you go. What then?"
He would always remember me with graft
tude. He would go onihis way at once, and
do no harm to my property. He was no
thief. He had only entered this dvor-this
yard-to:hide himself but that the sight of
food had overcome him; he was furnishing,
and he dared not beg. He had walked, how
far he could not tell, perhaps thousand
versts, and all the way he had not dared to
ask for food, scarcely to speak to living
soul. He was trying to reach his own vii
lage perhaps thousand versts further. If
would only set him free he would 60 on at
once.
That was about the substance of the fell
| lows answer. His appearance seemed to
| bear out his statements, and was inclined
| to believe him. cts sheer nonsense" l said
| ''for you to talk of setting off for walk of a
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,iyou miserable scare-crow,
and die in ditch. | should be doing the
kinder thing by you if I!handed you over to
the authorities If do let you go, must
give you something to.eat first. Come with
me-"
| The miserable wretch hardly believed that
/ really meant to feed him, and would have
run away had he dared. I took him into the
| empty house, of which l had the key, and
| fetched him as much food as thought it safe
for him to eat.
| So there l was, with an escaped convict on
my hands. Had / been more prudent should
have reflected that the fellow was most like
ly hardened scoundrel, quite undeserving
of pity, and that his gratitude would proba-
bly, be shown either by robbing 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 but, as said before, l am
soft hearted 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 go on. Nobody
knew about him, not even the members OF
my own family, for if 1 was doing 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, he said,
| was in the government of Vladimer, and he
| had left it to get work in the town of Ivan
vova, where there are factories. Every man
tries to make out good case for himself, so
did not feel myself bound to place implicit
reliance on Feeders statement that he had
never committed anything that could proper
ly be called a crime. According to his show
ing, the sole source of his troubles had been
difference with an ouvanpnik-a police
agent, do not exactly remember the par
ticulars, but, of course, there was woman
in the business; blows had passed, and the
ouvadnik..had, by false charge, procured
Feeders condemnation to Siberia for life.
This, l say, was his 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 should not have
believed from his words, had they not been
verified by his appearance.
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 Ivanova-a distance of not less
than twelve hundred versts from Ekaterin-
burg, as the crow flies; and advised him, as
he was used to mill work, to stay and find
employment where he was. / was weak
enough to offer to help him, and see what
could be done in the way of getting pass
port for him. But the fellow was bent on
going forward. He was resolved he said, to
see his family again, and he was resolved to
| GOO RaSiI NIalaroff This Makaroff was 7