The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1892-11-03
CHAPTER XIX,
THE BONDS ARE STRENGTHENED.

THE BONDS ARE STRENGTHENED.
Between Catherine Petrovna and Rachel
Arama the intimacy grew and strengthen
common sorrow and fostered by COM
mon hope. What that hope was neither
would have cared to have shaped into def
mite words. But when Catherine watched
with hungry anxious eyes the pale, melan-
choly face of her husband, as YEARLY
he marched along with his fellow
subjects, that dark hope-dark rs yet,
for it was so uncertain-g gave her
courage; and when she listened to the
clanking of his chains, her heart beat mad
ly with a'tierce desire-a desire to make o
desperate bid for liberty. But how it was
to be done she could form do idea. She
could only watch silently and patiently for
the opportunity, should it ever arise. And
then-well, then it would be liberty or
death. But she cared not for death if she
could die with Paul.
Such were her thoughts; they came and
went like phantoms, at times filling her
with a feeling that all would be we'll, that
all would come as she hoped, and then
anon, hope was changed to despair until
she felt as if her heart was bursting and her
brain was on fire, and she was tempted to
"Curse God and die" So these fits OF hope
and despair alternated, and days wore on.
The weeks grew into months, and the terri
BILE journey was coming to an end.
Two women could hardly have been more
.dissimilar than Catherine and Rachel.
The one was rugged, coarse, rough by ma
ture, lacking the finer sentiments
and the high intellectual qualities
which subdue and, in some cases, almost
entirely crush out the mere animal facul-
ties. And yet Catherine loved Paul with a
love that was capable of swaying her to do
the most desperate deeds, to dare danger
4 J,~. L.
poetry in her love-that is. there were
none of those fine and subtle shades of SEN
timent in it which characterized the love
of Evangeline as she wandered through
the primPval forests in search of her lost
| Gabriel.
GATHERINGS love was passion the pas
rass on was daily kept alive BY the sigh, 81
Paul and the presence of Paul; and by the
| occasional pressure of his hand and lips.
For at the halting-places the female rela-
tiyes were allowed to mingle with them for
a brief time.
How different was it with. Ra-
che.-the delicate gentle, refined
woman whose life, up to little
while ago, had been as a dream oil
| roses. Bus, alasl the roses had faded and
the dream had become reality of thorns;
a sense of unutterable loneliness tortu, ed
her, while the suspense she had to endure
was almost maddening. For, after all,
might it not be when the weary thousands
of miles had been trayersed, and the DESC
late region of the far east was revealed
might it not be that she would find herself
still lonelier in the world, if the sorrows oil
those she loved were ended in the grave?
But still, mingling with suspen was a
hope that grew strong and feeble bv turns,
and her great wrong upheld her; and in the
rough friendship of Catherine she found q
measure of consolation that tended TO make
her sense of Loneliness less keen.
As there was striking contrast between
Catherine and Rachel. so there was between
Catherine and her husband. Paul was a
physically weak man, though strongly
Intellectual one. He had had am
bition, but his ambition had been
killed; he had looked upward 10 the
stars, but had been beaten down to the
earth, and the hopes he had cherished had
turned to bitter and vain regret. He
had taken possession of him, and he seemed
| incapable of shaking it off. He appreciat-
ed he devotion of his wife. He found COM
tort in her presence, and the sound of her
voice often lifted him out of the gloom that
ienwrapped him. But no such thought and
hope as that which sustained her upheld
him. She dreamed ofliberty again; but lie
believed that the only freedom he would
know would be that which death would
bring.
At first he showed no disposition to be
| friendly with, or even courteous to, Rachel
| He had been imbued with tile dislike, SO
general amongst his countrymen, for peo-
| pie OF the jewish persuasion. His dislike.
| however, had been rather of a passive
| character. Fit found expression at all, il
| was in d silent and contemptuous bear
| ing towards them. Perhaps his pre-;
| JUDGE, like that of good many
more. was unreasoning; that is, he never
| troubled himself to inquire why he dis
liked the Jews. In SO far as. Rachel was
al his Wig WHO 4Rapflfl aas, ahd GATH L
| crime had answered him thps;-
''ahe'i is going to her father and her lover.
They are In sakhalin. She is o voluntary
exile. She may clip us"
Help us How" Paul had asked In
surprise.
II am a woman and she Is woman, ~
| was GATHERINGS strange answer 1.-TWO
| desperate women may do much" AS
Catherine uttered this little Speech Paul
saw in the future some great possibilities
| Two desperate women may do much. y
| They will dare much and suffer much, and
for sweet loves sake they may finally
] conquer.
| He popdered on these words They af.
| forded him food for reflection for many
and many a day. And he shaped them
/ THIS way, and he shaped them that, and,
| finally, he came to the conclusion that two
| desperate women, actuated by common
] cause, might find a cans to circumvent
! even the vigilance oil mercenary sentries,
/ and if they did-there was an .'if, in the
case-who could tell what might happen?
4 In that 'if' he found something that en-,
eouraged him to foster faint hope.
lsxeept in THE winter months, when snow
and Ice reiider Navigation impossible, the
| convict route from TiulIsen Is by eoEyirI
barge down the great river Irish, and Their
| NJ Oh, to the town OF Tomsk, distance o.
aeyen hundred miles
During the day the exiles, who are never
freed from their chains, are allowed tc
! promenade about OH the tlnpel
deck in sort of a huge cage, which
Is suhdivided by wire partition
separating the men from the womer
though through the me5hes of the wire
they can converse with each other But a:
geptries are constantly patrolliilg UP ant
l down. the conversation has to be guarded
i Nevertheless Uathesfne ID occasionally
! find opportunity 10 speak cheering word.
10 neFfhpsband; she fold him tas much q.
she. had learnt from Rachel, and spoR,
highly Of her. and BY the time EoDlsk wa
reached he looked on the JeWess with cob
siderablY less prejudice. 4
Now Hp to ills point Paul had in GER.
tain sense boon sllllenly Indifferent to hi
future fate. Possibly. fit had not been FOL
his wife's devotion, he would have eourtet
death by breaking from the ranks OH TIL,
first opportunity, knowing that before Ii,
had gotten many yards away he would al
Tiddled with bullets from the rifles OF tn,
convoy guards. But at Tomsk an inciden