San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-10-24
aade, have boon truitless.

his victims, and there is no escape from
the living Death to which he has con-
signed them.
Come on;lthey are going now," said
Maurice, and as he spoke commotion
was visible among the exiles, and the
commandinglofficer shouted:
Forward, nowl Get on boardp'
In groups of twos and threes the
wretched prisoners filed down the plat
form past the armed guards, who stood
30 feet apart, and crossed the floating
wharf to the barge.
This vessel was about 100 feet long
At each extremity was built deck
house painted yellow, and the space be-
tween these was rooted over with tim
Der and faced with heavy wire screens.
In these pens the prisoners were placed.
Beneath the deck were dark, gloomy
holes, with tiers of narrow hunks,
where they were to sleep.
The boys sat down ON the bare floor
in one corner of the pen and watched
for an hour or two the strange scene
that was taking place before them.
The prisoners, crowding up against
the screen, were carrying ON a brisk
business with the peddlers and peasant
women who had come ON board the
barge with bread, cakes, sailed cucum-
bers, strings of dried mushrooms and
fish pies.
The chatting and buying kept up
briskly until little past noon.
Then steamer backed up to the ves-
sci, with great blowing of whistles, and
in few moments the convict barge
was speeding through the black current
of the river on its long voyage to Tomsk.
1t was evident that Captain SASH,
the commandment of the Moscow prison,
had received special instructions con-
corning the two boys. They were guard
ed more closely, it is true, than the
common prisoners, but as yet they had
not suffered the indignity of being
chained, and they were supplied with
reasonably good food.
Moreover, although they did not
know it themselves, they were being
transported across Siberia with a rapid
ity that is seldom granted to Russian
exiles Instead of marching hundreds
of miles on foot, they had journeyed en-
tirely by rail and by water.
With their fellow passengers they had
little or nothing to do. They were all
low grade convicts-thieves, murderers,
bandits-a fact which Maurice was not
slow to recognize.
In the past two months the boys had
picked up a slight smattering of the
Russian language and were now able to
understand tho commands of the SOL
diers and officers.
Day after day the barge moved slowly
on its course, first up the sluggish cur
rent of the river Tobol and then down
the more impetuous waters of the OBJ.
For hours at time the boys gazed
YEARLY on the ever changing landscape,
the forest clad hills and mountains, the
pretty villages with their golden spires,
and the waving fields of grain, for such
was Siberian scenery at this season of
the year. This vast continent is not al
ways the barren, snow clad desert that
many believe it to be perpetually.
Among their fellow prisoners the
boys had made one acquaintance, a
middle aged Russian, who appeared to
be of a higher class than his associates,
though he possessed a cast of features
by no means prepossessing. He had
scraped acquaintance with Maurice by
addressing him in French, language
which the lad happened to have ac-
quired at college, and in his delight at
finding some one from whom he could
obtain information Maurice gladly over
| looked all other considerations.
The Russians name was Grodno, and
he very freely confessed to Maurice that
his offense was smuggling contraband
! goods over the Russian border.
If he expected like return of conf
dence, he was disappointed, for Maui
rice was clever enough to see that it
would be unwise to make a confidant of
such a man. Instead he allowed him
| self TO pose as political prisoner. How
ever, in regard to that matter of which
| he was most anxious, he could learn
nothing. Grodno, disappointed per-
haps to find that his friend was neither
a cutthroat nor a robber, disclaimed all
| knowledge of what was usually done
with "politicals," as he rather scorn-
fully termed them.
The Russian possessed another friend
on board the barge, a most villainous
looking Turk, with sunburned face and
a stubby black beard. He wore a greasy
red fez and was continually smoking a
short clay pipe.
Grodno and Hamid, for that was the
Turks name, held long and whispered
conversations in Russian day after day,
always keeping apart in a corner by
themselves and separating whenever
any of the guards approached. These
secret palavers Maurice observed with
suspicion and distrust, for their actions
on many occasions showed that the boys
had something to do with the subject of
their discussion.
Meanwhile the barge was drawing
nearer its destination, and the dreary
1900 mile ride would soon be over.
All day they had been drifting
through a wild and picturesque bit Of