Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-08-14
Any thing IS better than the fortress, said

little wooden house. the last one OF the town
on the shore OF the Lena. the only one,
perhaps, which was not surrounded by those
palisades of planks driven into the ground
which give an air so devoid of s0ciabiiity &c
the inhabitants of Y2kCutsk The new sec
rotary of the governor had some partitions
hastily put up IN It, il order to provide q
suitable apartment with III alcove for Mad
eye and a little room for the child
The inst dlation was rtDidly made. In
Siberia beds are unknown. People sleep on
heap of skins or carpets and cover them.
! selves with the same materials In the
matter of furniture. the young people,
with their fixed idea of escaping on the
first occasion, limited themselves to strict
necessity.
1t was then the middle of November; the
days had only three hours of sun and two
hours of twilight with the prospect of see
ing the sun vanish altogether during De-
cember and January, giving place to night
which seems eternal. AS far as the eye
could reach the ground was hidden beneath
a winding-shact of snow. And it was thus
for many months!
Sometimes, this thick snow heaped itself
up menacingly against the houses, rolling
over upon the ro5cs and breaking them in.
A violent wind. il. its turn. ACCOMPLISHED it's
ravages The centigrade thermometer de.
seconded below t3-.2'ty degrees, below even
forty degrees.
M. LafeUr came in a sledge to visit his
new friends.
''Brou," uttered he Kidding himself of his
furs. Happily wood is not wanting in this
miserable country! And to think that the
natives are in the midst of this snow, as in q
| mass of Uadding! Hpw do you think they
live? They pursue, IN the night which sur
rounds US, the Ioellines, to pay the Cars
tax, the reindeer, the foxes of all colors and
the bears. They fish in summer and hunt
in winter"
ALI" murmured Nadege, when shall we
again see spring."
Spring, Mademoiselle?n said the dancing.
master. ut is here much harder and much
more dislgreeable than winter People
sometimes sink up to the breast in the moist
soil, which is mixed with a kind of white
marmalade."
The life led by Yegor in the governors
family would have been supportable, in
spite of all. had it not been for h is cares of
the future and his thwarted projects Of
liberation which required those precious in
stants he was forced t, lose.
He filed the album of the gOvern0r-gen.
| erals wife with clricatures, sketches and
colV@c3 1C1;,~ls c-c"cuaoi quadrilles upon
| the young l2li3c piano, played chess with
the governor, ~, c1tcd charades, ard organ
izci dan. ,,rties to which the few ladies
of Ialzouts1- wore invitcl AL tbs for Fl fly
| four dollars a month.
NJ. Laflour was ut all these little parties
| given by the governor. At these reunions
the dancin~-,nGstc- resumed all hi, aGrant-
| ages. No2irg VS. '~"-', ~ ,i,:al Il IL to
see hir1 regulate the movements Of the
'Siberienne" with the delicate sounds of his
pocket violin, interrupted during certain
steps the time for which he beat himself
supplying i'll these intervals with his voice
the missing Music of the instrument
On such occasions he assumed the noble
attitudes Of the old French school, which
had reached him by one knew not what ira
ditions; then suddenly, shaking himself,
lO0sening his joints and twisting himself, he
mingled the free and easy movements of
the balls of the balTieres Of Paris with tie
| classic rigidity Of the dances of the old-time
| court.
| Yegor finally obtained, to his great joy,
| permission to hunt with the governor S
! guns. He had bought, secretly, at Irk-
outsk, at the moment of his departure, a
double-balreled carabine and a pair of re-
vOlvers; but these weapons remained care
fully hidden.
The chase would give him an opportunity
! to study the region. He made many eXcur-
sions during the winter and was even &C
| companied, once or twice, by Mile. Agrafe-
ma, with few Cossaclzs as escort.
He sometimes quilted the town with a
s'od~a dram h horses, and remained away
three days, in order to accustOm the COVER
nor to prolonged absences.
| Yegor was treated with affability by the
! governor and all his family. Notwithstand
| ing, he never took Nadege to the govern
| ment palace. He assorted that the young
| girl suffered from weakness to justify her
| SeCluSiOn.
| One spring morning, Yegor, at an early
| hour, had started with his Sledge over the
! softened snow. Driving himself, he was
proceeding, as fast as two good horses OF
! the country could go, along the great west
ern highway, when he met another sleGge
in which was traveller carefully envelope6
in furs, in whom Yegor thought he recog
niZed the man of the whip of the OukbOu
mine, the corporal whom he had struck an6
| defed. Such meeting in this spot was
| passably strange! What strengthened veg
| or in his supposition, almost inadmissible
however, was an involuntary movement he
| surprised. He could not doubt that this
man was the Russian, Yermac.
1t was he, in fact. Yegor knew it with
certainty that very day.
Yermnc had been relieved of his VOW o.
| expiation and humiliation The governor Of
| western Siberia, when he learned the mo
tives for the resignation of the Ipravsnik OF
Nertchinsk and was informed of his en-
trance into the service of the mines resolved
to induce the honest functionary to recon
slider his determination. H. fell 30 Wprl
| and succeeded in overcoming his obstinate
resistance and excessive scruples At last
| Yermac yielded; but he made condition
namely, that he should leave the district
General k gave him a letter of recon
mendation to the governor of Yakoutsk ant
enabled him to 90 to him.
On the day succeeding this meeting, veg
or saw the ex-guard enter the governors of
fee. An instant afterwards, the latter
summoned his secretary.
Monsieur Semenoff, said me, ''this i:
our new chief of police, NJ. Yermac; aid
him in taking possession of his post NJ
Yermac, however, has been long in the ad
ministration and has no apprenticeship t.
undergo"
The governor noticed the constrained ali
of the two men, the smiles of irony upol
their lips, and their strange glances.
''Perhaps you know each other already!'
said he.
''Your Excellency is not deceived" re