San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-11-07

SN'S9, 'N-Ns nv 'Sg'' A'N"''ag AAc-Se' 49,
placed bCtG SCn Il, 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 somEer 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 PlatoH
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 UNDECIDED 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 slight 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, buwever, he could not give them.
He explained the iniquities aud the cor
ruption of Russian justice with WV
idness that made his hearers shudder,
and he showed them how utterly hope
less it would be to attack Vladimir
Saradoff's intrenched position, even
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 la
bored in behalf of social reforms.
On the flimsiest of evidence he was
convicted and sentenced to Siberia for
ten years.
He had been educated at the Moscow
university and was an educated and
scholarly man.
These and many other topics he dis
cussed with the boys at every opportu-
nifty ON their long march, and i'll 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.
1--WE are all three political prison.
ers," he said, land we shall be treated
as such. For some months we shall be
kept in close confinement in the prison.
At the expiration of that time, if 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?"
mo-" replied Platoff; "only the or
binary criminals do that Politlcals
never labor in the mines"
"And when once we are allowed to
join this free command and live outside
the prison what are our chances of es-
CapeI continued mauriOe' Ai"tOh
shrugged his shoulders.
''We won't discuss that, he said.
MANY escape every year, some strik-
ing westward, others down the valley
of the Amur toward the Pacific, but
all are eventually recaptured and are
made to pay dearly for their brief pc
riod of liberty. Yet if a nce'offered
think / would take it. Time will tell
whether Twill be compelled to serve
on: my sentence at the mines of Kara. "
GLOW far from the mines is the Pa
cifsc ocean, inquired Phil.
LESS than 1000 miles, - was Pla-
toif's answer. 1.-The Amur river leads
right to Vladivostok, the Russian sea-
pogt. +"
"And once at Vladivostok what