The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-11-04

the Ollicer III command or 1t. "
This announcement was a great sur
prise to Platoff The fact that he had
stormed single handed building held
by the soldiers seemed to impress him
from a ludicrous standpoint, for he
turned toward the boys with a comical
expression on bis face.
Maurice was trembling in fear of the
consequences of this rash act, and Phil
was leaning against the wall, very pale
and daZed
A surgeon presently arrived, who
dressed the bullet wound i'll Platoff's
leg, and then the prisoners were led
away and placed in separate cells, large,
dreary apartments half filled with huge
wooden chests.
Maurice spent a wretched night. He
tossed from side to side trying in vain
to sleep, and listening to the monoto-
nous tread of the sentry. AT daybreak
file of mounted Cossacks came after the
prisoners. Platoff, on account of his
wounded leg, was mounted on horse
back, and the boys, heavily ironed, were
placed between two columns of soldiers.
As they passed through the square
Maurice could with difficulty believe
that it was the scene of last nights
struggle.
The place was almost deserted. A few
people stood on the street corners, and
the shutters of the somber gray houses
were tightly closed, probably to hide the
broken windows.
The forwarding prison was soon
reached. 1t was large, dilapidated
building on the outskirts of the city.
The boys were separated from Platoff
as soon as they entered the courtyard
and taken away to large cell, where
they were locked up together. Here
they spent nearly two weeks Of trying
suspense, expecting any moment to be
led out and shot for their participation
in the riot.
The guards visited them daily, but
it was impossible to obtain any infor-
nation from them, and Maurice's en-
treaties to the commanding officer of
the prison were unheeded. Then one
cold, raw morning they were hurried
through the courtyard in the early
dawn. Outside in the dreary street an
exile party was forming, and before it
was fully light the long procession was
winding over the frozen ground toward
the distant mines of Kara. That last
stage of the journey was more dreadful
than anything that had preceded it.
Winter set in with arctic severity, and
the wretched exiles toiled through snow
and ice, shivering in their scanty gar
ments, weak for want of nourishing
food, and sleeping at night in road sta
tions where every form of disease brood
ed in the vitiated air.
Many died, and some were left in
wayside hospitals, but Maurice and
Phil fortunately escaped serious illness,
though they grew more emaciated day
by day.
One Aight consolation alleviated
their misery. Paul Platoff journeyed at
their side each day, and the strange ac-
quaintance that began on the terrible
night of the riot ripened into deep
and lasting friendship. The famous
revolutionist, for such he was, possess
ed many traits which the boys admired.
He was kind hearted and sympathetic,
and, more than all, he readily believed
the tale of crime and sorrow that they
poured into his willing ear. Consola-
ton, however. he could not give them.
He explained the iniquities and the cor
ruption of Russian justice with a WV
idness that made his hearers shudder,
and he showed them how utterly hope
less it would be to attack Vladimir
|
with abundant proofs of the dreadful
crime. OF himself Platoff spoke little.
He had been neither terrorist nor an
extremist, he said, but had merely Ia
bored in behalf of social reforms.
On the fiimsiest of evidence he W" =
convicted and sentenced to Sibt. u =. :
ten years.
He had been educated at the MCa'o''
university and was an educated 80. /
scholarly man.
These and many other topics he az =
cussed with the boys at every opport..
nity on their long march, and in this
way both Maurice and Phil acquired
fluent knowledge of the Russian Ian,
guage that permitted them to converse
freely.
Platoff told them much about the
mines of Kara, its rules and regula-
tions.
"We are all three political prison
ers," he said, land we shall be treated
as such. For some months we shall be
kent i'm close confinement in the prison.
At the expiration of that time, II we
behave ourselves in accordance with the
rules, we will be permitted to join the
free command and live outside the pris-
on in cabins. subject. of course, to con-
slant police supervision.
But how about the mines?" asked
Maurice. "Will we not be compelled to
work in them?'
"No," replied Platoff; "only the or
binary criminals do that. Politicals
never labor in the mines.
"And when once we are allowed &c
ioip this free command and live outside
the prison what are our chances OF es.