San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-07-25
THE EXILES.
RUSSIAN STORY

Nnen IL was within ten PAGES, lie nTou
twice and hit it.
The bear, feeling itself wounded, stopped
for an instant and howled; but it immedi.
ately took to flight, tinging the snow with
its blood.
M. Lafieur vainly discharged his gun al
it. The bear scampered away, and soon dis.
appeared among blocks Of ice whittier it was
impossible to pursue it.
Tho dogs, badly trained for the chase, OBJ
stinately chung to the tracks Of the firsttwc
bears, and the hunters ran a great risk Of
returning em~pty-handed-a prospect more
than disagreeable, considering the scarcity
of provisions.
Meanwhile, Nadege and Ladislas, who
had remained in the hut beside the fire,
grew anxious at the long absence Of the
hunters. Yermac. seated opposite to them,
looked at them in silence, avoiding, when
they spoke to him, any other reply than q
motion of the head or a shrug Of the shout.
ders.
The look of this taciturn man weighed
upon Nadege. Wab, doubtless hearing in
the distance the barking Of the two Siberian
dogs, began to howl in a fashion that made
an impression on the young girl.
EDu0 jul Ou hCh q llChbo anu,
followed by Ladislas, ventured out of the
hut. The twilight had begun early, and the
state of the sea seemed to her a sufficient
cause for u~neasiness. Clouds, harbingers
of a tempest, were heaped up TO the east.
Mists were rising from the ocean. Soon she
saw the water, beaten by the hurricane,
spring up in immense sheaves and fall back
noisily upon the white promontories.
Under the influence of a violent northeast
wind, the yet free waters of several open
spaces threw with unheard of force enor
nous blocks upon the plains of ice which
they broke into fragments. Plates Of ice
rose to the SUBMITS of the waves, dashed
against each other with a crash and disap-
peared covered with foam. n wave
rushed upon the blocks and buried them:
but, the next instant, the same blocks, ris.
ing again to the surface, scattered the
water around them, and, hurting them.
selves upon the nearest masses, struggled
until they got them under. A resonant and
continual cracking of the breaking ice min.
gled with the noise of the waves uplifted by
the wind.
The explorers of the polar seas affirm that
no word can describe the nature Of this
AOloC. IL 10 az llo uhuO wv INV bAoCo
and trembling ice, like the Kissing of a thou.
sand arrows, an internal din in which the
sharpest voices yelp mingled with the deep.
est, and the roaring becomes more and more
| savage. The ice breaks in concentric
cracks its broken fragments roll one upon
another. Then begins a ferocious, titanic
strife, a headlong combat which recalls the
battle of the elements in the first ages of the
world. These masses march, meet, strike
each other and dash against each other,
| changed by a hidden power and seeming to
obey passions.
Above these convulsive scenes, the re-
Election of the ice gives the sky a strange
aspect and Eliminates it with a supernatu-
raj light.
Wab, still with Nadege, began to howl
without respite.
Ladislas strove to calm his sisters fears.
He told ~her-which was true-that YegCI
and NJ, Lafeur We're hunting among the
chains of icebergs situated in the west, and
that the free waters could not reach there to
execute their sudden ravages.
But the terrified Nadege advanced cour-
ageously over the sea, in the direction in
which she might hope to meet Yegor, whom
she regrett d having allowed to venture so
far. The young girl thought that in the
dim light the hunters would guide them.
selves by the barking Of Wab; she counted
upon the intelligence of Yegor's dogs, and
followed the faithful animal which. in all
probability, would go in the direction where
the hunters were.
Suddenly, it seemed to her-and to Lad
islas also-that the solid plain over which
they were advancing was in motion beneath
their feet. They were not deceived. Soon
the oscillations were more marked. Be-
meath their steps, the ice cracked and split.
| Several black clefts furrowed the snow at
random-they were crevices in process of
formation.
Nadege wished to go back. but behind
them now a canal had opened, encountered
with moving ice. At this sight, the young
girl began to utter ~despairing cries. The
lad tried in vain to quiet her. Wab barked
louder than ever. The vast cake Of ice upon
which they were, f1oated. Suddenly, a
wave lifted it, dragged it away, and precip-
itated it with irresistible force upon the
frozen surface.
The shock was terriblel A prolonged
cracking %resounded beneath their feet, and
they felt tina the wave, in withdrawing, had
borne away enormous fragments of the
broken block.
Nevertheless, they arose unhurt. Guided
by the instinct of Wab, they began to run
in the direction opposite to the tempest,
over a field of ice several feet thick, which
seemed likely to remain motionless and re-
sist all the efforts made by the waves to
separate it; but there, the ice blocks,