Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-10-23
THE EXILES.
A RUSSIAN STORY

the day and amid terrible cold, the fugitives
arrived at the mouth of the Ka-nennaya
Kolima.
1.-THE seal the sea /" cried the two natives.
drawing themselves up and pointing towards
an icy stretch which was lost to the north
in the mists of the sky.
1.-The Arctic ocean," said NJ. Lafeur.
shivenng despite himself as if before some
thing fearful and mysterious
'They will not come here to search for US :"
murmured Yegor.
The Arctic landscapes are but little varied.
In the wan and misty atmosphere there are
no shadows; the lines of the horizon are eff.
faced and vanish. Height and distance dc
not exist; the land and the sea, equally
white with snow, can scarcely be distin-
guishcd one from the other; the innumera-
bic irregularities and windings of the coast
seem, in these dead and desolate regions,
not to have had the time to assume decided
and precise shapes. One might believe him
self in the midst of universe still in pro
cess of formation.
The silence and immobility of nature in
the vicinity of the pole, have something
grand and wild about them. Yegor, Nadege
and M. Lafeur, all three, were seized with
a secret terror, as if upon the threshold OF
an unknown world.
Yermac alone. inacccssi0l Die to every emo
ton, remained impossible and rigid. He
comprehended that, with the cold and the
continuous night which would shortly begin,
the surveillance of which he was the object
would necessarily be relaxed. Could he es-
cape then. Should he strive to fee, OF
should he wait until some unforeseen event
changed the face Of things?
Around the fugitives everything displayed
the lugubriOus imprint of polar lethargy
Not a sound, not cry, not a breath. 1t
was like an empty and depopulated planet
destroyed by some horrible cataclysm
Affair, above mountains of ice-cylindrical
masses-jutting out like prOmontories, white
birds vague as shadows fOlted slowly, sug-
costing the wandering souls of those who
are no more. The light was funereal and
so feeble that objects had neither body nor
color
At last, the fugitives had reached the spot
where they designed to conceal themselves
during the winter They would erect a
stout hut, well sheltered from the winds Of
the north. 1t was only on the arrival of
spring that they could risk traversing the
country Of the Tchoul1tchis, on their way to
the Gulf of Anadyr.
On their hazardous journey sown with
perils of every kind, they had lost all idea
of time.
II would like to know what part Of the
year it is, said NJ Lafleur; ''but we have
kept no account of the days"
''This is the Goth of November" said the
chief of police, in a tone Of certainty
'Indeed?" said Yegor. "This is the rea.
tha 1nyr Chn nf+ 70
morrow will commence a night of thirty-six
days"
"a complete night?" asked Nadege, turn
ing pale.
complete The sun will reappear only
on the 2Sth of December. | am fully in
formed on that point"
''But how shall we manage to live in the
darl1ness?" demanded Nadege.
''The night will not be as dark as you
imagine, Mademoiselle," said NJ. Lafeur,
'"Thanks to the power of the refraction and
the cleaning whiteness of the snow, as well
Us the frequency of the aurora bOrealis, the
gloom will be supportlble. We shall also
have the moon, which will make us ten
visits every twenty-four hours. What we
have to fear are the excessive cold and
lack of provisions. We are now but six,
since the poor little lad has not rejoined u.s. ,
Don't count me ~ said the chief of police,
dryly.
why not?"
''Now that my arm is cured, I shall make
it a point not to accept for single day long
er anything whatever from you. Alone,
shall find way to procure my food. l do
not wish to embarrass you"
Gas you please" said Yegor. monsieur
Yermac," added he, ''you shall have your
liberty when we abandon this spot early in
the spring. That is if you do not prefer tc
accompany US to the Gulf of Anadyr, where
we shall quit simultaneously Siberia, Rus
STA and Asia"
'',That remains to be scent" muttered Yer.
mac, in a low tone.
CHAPTER NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. FOR THE WIN.
TER.
The fugitives and the chief of police
paused at the edge of small frozen river,
the water of which could be drunk On the
banks of this stream they could gather
drifted wood to burn during the winter.
1t was in the vicinity of Cape Baranotf,
which bristled with rocks Of strange and
fantastic shapes; one fancied he saw there
figures of men and gigantic animals scatter
ed among ruined towers and dismantled and
crumbling walls which one might take fol
the WRECKS Of a fortress
The north and northwest portions of the
cape are composed of rocks of schist, plung.
ing perpendicularly into the sea and cut
here and there by narrow valleys.
To the north, bounding the horizon, were
vaguely outlined huge mountains of ice,
called icebergs by English and American
nayigators. A little in front of them stretch.
ed out a vast open space in the ice.
Upon the Siberian shores of the Arctic
Ocean, one does not see immense glaciers
like those of Smiths Strait. Nevertheless
as the current of the Polar Sea flows from
west to east it will readily be understood
that enormous masses of ice are drawn to-
wards Behring's Strait From various
causes, the height of the frozen mountains
augments as one leaves the coast behind
him
At this spot on the shore of the Arctic
Ocean the people from the banks of the
Kolma stop, when they start out to hunt
the fur producing animals.
There exists, between the limit they as
sign to themselves and that adopted bv the
TchouktcniS, Il neutral ana unlnh45ited zone
very favorable for the establishment of d
winter camp for fugitives.
The coast was covered with drifted wo cd
which could be utilized in the construction
of a hut for the winter, which gave promise
of being excessively severe.
Everybody assisted in erecting the hut
even Yermac. The interior was SO arranged
as to furnish, besides the room common tx
all, a cham.er for Nadege, in which hel