San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-07-21
CHAPTER xvIII.-AT THE MERCY OF HURRI,
CANE.

CHAPTER XvIII.-AT THE MERCY OF HURRI-
CANE.
The chief of police was seated, as on the
preceding days, in NJ. Lafleur's marta. The
fugitives were fast leaving in the d,jtance
the settlement where they had been so hos
pitably received.
Why had not Yermac followed up his res
olution to betray theml Because the chief
Metek, upon whom he had counted, had not
returned. He had been compelled to re-
sumo the journey with his companions
without opposition, seeming a very unim-
portant parsonage beside the all-powerful
chaman.
The nartas were speeding along tn" very
steep right bank of the Kolima, going in the
direction of Mini Kolimsk, the travellers in
tending to pass this last Russian station.
Yermac thought he would be set at liberty
when the fugitives reached the frontiers of
the country of the TChOuktchis.
In the middle of the day, the weather sud
denly changed; grayish mists arose from be-
hind the wooded hills left by the travellers
on their right.
These mists indicated the approach Of
pourga, a tempest peculiar to the Siberian
regions and one of the greatest obstacles to
winter journey across the solitudeS OF
snow. Like the norther of the southern
ATTITUDES, the pOurga often comes on uneX-
pectedly without the least warning and
passes, sometimes for more than week,
through successive phases Of violence and
fury
Ordinarily, this tempest is not accom-.
panied by fall of snow, but it is character
lied by immense whirling masses of snow
which the wind tears from the plains and
toundras and which it transports afar, in
thick and suffocating clouds which prevent
one from seeing at distance of four PAGES.
The air is literally DISTRACTED with thick
flakes, which, in few seconds, wall up, so
to speak, ones eyes and nostrils. The force
of the wind renders standing upright an i'm
possibility. Advancing in such weather IS
not to be thought of, and the unfortunate
surprised by one of these tempeSts can only
bury himself under his furs behind his
sledge and wait there without other shelter,
shivering and benumbed with cold for days
and nights, until the wind weakens. If,
before that hour of deliverance, his pro-
visions give out, all his efforts to escape
from death will be useless, the frightful
hurricane bearing away whatever cries he
may utter. Worn out with cold lassitude
and hunger he sinks beneath the snow, the
white winding-sheeI of which speedily
marks with a slight undulation the place Of
his final repose.
The black cloud, which for an hour had
hung about the horizon, spread rapidly to-
wards the south and enveloped with sombre
mists the last glimmers of the Arctic twi-
light The wind, loaded with hoarse bel
lowings brought from the ice-foes and ice
fields of the Polar Sea, hurled itself upon
the plain raising whirlwinds of snow, which
sped like tall phantoms through the dark
ness towards the thick Of the advancing
tempest.
Yegor had scarcely time to order the two
nartas to be brought together before the
hurricane burst upon the fugitives. Soon
every sound was lost in the roar of the
tempest, while the snow in tlaky clouds abb
sorbed the air and impeded respiration.
Yegor and Nadege could no longer see
even their team of dogs, and, in the brief
pause they made short time afterwards to
assure themselves that no one was missing,
they perceived that the second sledge, in
which were NJ. Lafleur and Yermac, had not
followed them. Five minutes, ten minutes
elapsed, and still the two men did not come.
They uttered cries and Yegor discharged
his pistols. He despatched Tekel as far
back as he dare go, but the Yakoute return
ed, saying that he could not see two PAGES
before him and that the gale had effaced all
traces Of their passage.
Yegor desired to wait, hoping that the de-
layed sledge would reioin them. He adj