The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1890-10-16

breast He blushed and quickly covered it
| with his hand, as if to prevent anyone from
touching or defiling it.
! The action was ill-interpreted by the in.
spector
''Allow me?n said he
| 'Oh!" cried the exile, 81 suppose that
there is nothing dangerous to the safety OF
the state in the portrait of a young girl
| especially that of a martyr-the daughter OF
the poet Davidof, an exile like myself,
whom she has followed into Punishment"
! 81 knew Davidoff and his daughter"
said the inspector. "Hg worked in this
| mine!''
''And since?" said the young man, eagerly.
SIN pity"
ellis lot has been ameliorated. He is at
present living in Irkoutsk."
| After these words the inspector entered
the name of the convict on the register OPP
posite the number 1867; then, he ordered
him to be taken to the mine.
] In few instants, the exile was handed
over to a corporal of the guards.
''Yermac," said the keeper, ''here is 9
man to help fill up the void in your squad Of
miners"
''Three of my men died this week." OBJ
served the corporal, as he drew notebook
from his pocket and prepared to write. He
looked at the young man.
"Yegor Semenoff, !" said the latter, think
| ing that the corporal was waiting for his
name 'Shall | write it myself?" added he
ooh! I know how to write !" said the cor
! pCral, with a faint smile. "But [ need only
cipher. Number!''
Number 1867" answered the keeper
'Tho inspector directs that he shall lodge in
the fifteenth yourte, where there are already
two convicts."
While the keeper was speaking, Yegol
6emenoff studied the countenance Of the
nan, armed with a leather whip, under
whose control he was placed. He found
MIN possessed of grave air and bronzed
! but regular features. He seemed to breathe
honesty. There was nothing of the convict
guard in his face, which was rather that
of judge incapable of shrinking from his
duty.
ITO work" cried Corporal Yermac, strilz-
ing the air with his LASH. "Thorer' added
he, pointing to spot where a number of
miners were dr wing from the earth
basket of ore. Il am behind you!" cried he.
The miners, covered with tattered sheep
skins, filthy and barefooted, stared gloomily
at the companion who had come to them
warmly clad and wearing huge seadOg leath-
er boots bought at Nertchinsl1, whore the
exile had been able, thanks to the money
with which he was furnished, to make some
useful purchases.
One of them, going before, showed him
the road to take.
1t was ladder more than twelve hundred
feet long. Yegor began to descend, FOL
lowed by the squad and the corporal. Some
smoky lamps, placed in cavities of the wall
served only to show the thickness of the
gloom Hating places presented themselves
at rare intervals
Yegor heard at the bottom Of the shaft
the metallic sound of the hammer blows
upon the rock.
The sharp noise, the thick darkness, and
the sad and ragged groups, which, when
suddenly lighted up, threw out huge shad-
ows, together with the air loaded with de-
leterious dust, made strange impression
upon the young man, who, nevertheless, was
accustomed to the mournful episodes of the
prison and exile.
Nearer, it was, if possible, still more
frightful; the majority of these men, with
great boards, long, shaggy locks, sWarthy
compilations, scaly skins and sinister looks,
bore upon their foreheads and cheeks the
infamous brand Won. They were aSsassins,
robbers, and forgers, and could be recognized
by the squares of cloth sewed on the backs
of their garments. A red square for the
murderers, black square for the robbers
and yellow square for the incendiaries.
The others, belonging to the category of
political convicts, displayed wan visages
and lean bodies undermined by fevers and
gnaWed by the dust of the orc, which sends
forth arsenic if it is tin and verdigris if it is
copper.
They might be called walking horses.
Some were green, with bald pates as white
as chalk Their half-blind eyes let their
lids droop as if for the sleep OF DEATH
They arose and disappeared suddenly
behind rock, or plunged like ghosts into
dark corridors and one heard, from time
to time the hiss of corporal's whip fall
ing upon bony sides and bowls caused by
pain.
Yegor had been pushed to the extremity
of corridor just opened. Alone in this
narrow hole, as in stone vault, it seemed
to him that he was buried alive. He was
suffocating. A feeling of terror impossible
to describe shook his body with convulsive
shivers.
He strove to make use of his hammer,
but his arm fell back inert and weak, as if
paralyzed.
The keeper under vAhose charge he was
advanced slowly towards him.
''Must 1 set you in motion?" cried he,
raising his whip.
eff you touch me-" screamed Yegor,
whose brain was in a whirl, AZ will kill
you" Then, as if a prey to madness, he
added: ''If you WISH wait-you can muir
der me with bloWsn'
And he gave the corporal resounding
slap on the check.
Yegor expected to be hurled to the ground,
to be torn to pieces.
But the convict-guard, strange to relate,
stared at him fixedly without word; then,
casting his whip far from him, as if to es-
cape the temptation to use it he answered
the exiles insult with these words, uttered
in tone of great calmness:
81 could crush you in my hands, if I wish
ed to do so, but this time I pardon you I
accept the chastisement in expiration of my