The sun., 1892-11-24
CHAPTER XIV.
WAS IT A PHANTOM THAT LURED HIN?

once the SHOWS have departed, vegetation
in that region grows with astonishing ra-
pidity. And now the news circulated
that in q few days the eastward bound
party would recommenCe their dreary
march.
To two at least that was joyful news for
the awful monotony, to say nothing of the
suspense, was maddening. Those two were
Rachel and Catherine.
During all those weeks the latter had not
been alowed to see her husband and she
hailed the day of starting with irrepressible
joy, for once more she would look upon
Paul, hear his voice, and ieel the pressure
o his hand. Was not that something to
ieel joyful for when one had pined and
fretted and yearned as she had done? Dur
ing those, slow passing weeks she had
dreamed dreams and plotted plots, and
a remark she made one night to
Rachel as they lay in their
wretched hovel together. This was the
remark. and il seemed to burst from
her with the force of long pept-up passions
that could BE- pent up no longer
Upward to God go my thanks that we
are to leave this accursed spot at last"
II thank God, too, answered Rachel,
speaking in a more subdued way, and yet
with something of ferceness in her tone.
aye, and hark ye, Rachel" cried Cath
crime, seizing her companions wrist in a
paToAySIn Oh nervous eACICemenC, ana
marking the flesh with the pressure of her
nails, 'beGore my Paul shall suffer again
as he has suffered, will find means to kill
him and then kill myself They have made
me mad, but q mad woman's vengeance is
a thing to be dreaded; let them beware!'
''Be not RASH" counselled Rachel.
''Rash!' echoed her friend, with strange
laugh, and mistaking the others meaning.
us it rash to long for freedom? Is it rash
to yearn Tor vengeance on those who have
robbed you of every joy, who for months
and months have tortured you and your
loved one, who have crushed your heart
and broken your hopes, and made life
curse instead of blessing? Ifyou think so
l will hate you"
She ground her teeth and spoke with
fierceness that she had never before dis
played although she had fetit.
Catherine" answered Rachel calmly,
Il do not think so. For months l have
thought as you have thought, dreamed as
you have dreamed, hoped as you
have hoped. too, have been
robbed E i Of every every Joy; my loved ones ones
crushed-ah! the God of Israel knows how
cruelly-my hopes have been broken, and
my life has felt like curse instead of a
blessing. Even the lamb will endeavor to
turn upon the wolf that rends it, Your
wrongs are great, but mine are greater
still. My home has been destroyed. He
who was to have been my husband moul-
ders somewhere in the unknown wilder
ness; and my father, a man of good birth
and gentle breeding, a man to whom |
was everything that could make life worth
living, has mayhap succumbei to his
wrongs and the brutality of him who has
wrought all this misery. Am l less than
you, weaker than you, dulleer of feeling
than you, that L should have
no desire to wreak vengeance upon
the wronger2 And yet l am, alas!
only lonely woman, while you still have
your husband"
GATHERINGS paroxysm OF fury had passed,
and though the female nature is capable Of
outbursts Of passion which even the mans
nature cannot surpass, and not often equal,
she can alternate these outbursts with a
softness and gentleness which it is next to
impossible for man to display. And
when a woman has reached the maximum
Of her fury she finds relief in tears. So it
was with Catherine, and though her heart
had hardened there was still tender spot
in it, and that spot had been touched by
Rachels words, so that, throwing her arms
around the neck of her sister in sorrow,
she sobbeb pitiably; their tears mingled;
and she moaned between her sobs:-
''Forgive me- | have wronged you"
After all, Racheps nature was the stronger
one and she had made her power and in
t1uenCe felt.
You have not wronged me-"
ing to forgive: We have a COM
mon cause. Let US be true to it and our
selyes Even he who waits may win and
patience that endureth triumphs in the
end"
II learn from you. 1 learn from you, {"
sighed the weeping Gathering, thereby
showing how thoroughly she felt the infiu-
of her pOm DaOiOO
Now we must turn for while to another
character who plays no unimportant part in
this history, and who has been and still is
link-an indispensable link--without
which the chain would be broken.
Through those dreary months of snow
and ice during which the two women were
suffering and weeping man was travelling
with special interchangeable is per-
NIT to travel by post road. and with post
horses across Siberia. He was young
man, with white, haggard, careworn face, on
| which was stamped a marked and aCceD-
tuated expression of anxiety. His mode of
| travelling was by tarantas large, hooded
vehicle, in which the traveller eats, drinks
| and sleeps when he can sleep. Being win
| ter, the tarantas was on runners not on
wheels, and was drawn by troika (three)
| of horses.
This man was provide with what is
known as "a crown pAdarozhnaya," which
is a permit of the second class. That of the
first class is a courier's permit which takes
| precedence over all others, the courier be-
ing a Government messenger. At every
| post-station the cOurier's demand for
! horses takes priority, and there be none
| at the post, private individuals must fur
nish them under pain of heavy fine. 1t
| doesn't matter where they come from or
| how they are got, but got they must be-.
| Th5 crown permit gives way to the courier
| bTt ia DriOritV over the 0riiD arU tUaUal. ..
ler's permit, and anyone travelling with a
crown padaroZhnaya can demand horses
and Yamshtchik (driver), no matter how
many ordinary travellers are waiting for
| horses to push on to their destinations.
To travel through Siberia in the depth OF
less vehicle peculiar to the coun-
try, to live on coarse food and be
| compelled to take brief snatches OF rest in
| the tetid, dirty, and disease-infested post
houses, to endure the awful cold, the pitt
less snow storms, the ince>sant jolting, the
swinging pendulum fashion, ofthe taran-
tas as it is dragged by the powerful horses
over The frozen hummocks now plunging
madly in rayine, and anon going almost
vertically up a snow mound, then sweeping
| wildly round curve until the brain grows
| dizzy, or gliding with fearful swiftness over
a frozen river or lake with the boom and
roar Of the ice laundering in ones ears, re-
| qulISS pO"GlS VI dIlCG WHICH,
| not many men possess.
The young man with the white, haggard
| lace did not seem strong, but the face clear
| ly indicated fixed purpose, stern, de-
| termined purpose, that enabled him to
overcome the drawback of physical weak
| ness.
The Lake of Baikal was reached, and
over it he whirled, while an Arctic blizzard
almost turned his blood into solid ice A
brief rest; a dream haunted sleep in lone
ly post station, then on again through the
wild and weird Trans Baikal provinces,
which were frozen into maddenng stiffness,
and where white death reigned. But
this man was not daunted; he he'd on his
way. He halted not. Was he pursuing a
| phantom?
| Yesl
He did know it, did not think So II
anyone had told him it was so he would
have laughed him to scorn. But through
the mists and Ithe SHOWS he saw it ever. 1t
kept him awake when he ought to have
slept; it filed his sleep with dreams when
he did sleep. II keptshis blood circulating
when otherwise it would haye frozen. It
was phantom. But if he had been asked
to give it a name@he would have called it
Love. Others might have given it harsher
| IL F,t,, II