Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-04-09
Copyright, 1897, by Tillotson Il Son.
CHAPTER I.

S., one of the chief towns on the
Volsa. The lights in the villages by the
way had long been put out, and all the
huge plain by the right bank of the
Volga was stretch of unbroken black
ness. Cornfelds, meadows. black masses
of forest, were all swallowed up in it.
Here and there stood like ant hills clus-
ters of low huts with their pointed
thatched roofs-the dwellings of the
poverty stricken Volga peasantry-and
behind them, at little distance, were
the tall stacks of newly harvested corn,
more regular in shape than the hutS'
but easily mistakable for them in the
darkness.
The moon had not yet risen. A gen
tie night breeze, blowing from the great
river, languidly drove along the gray
clouds that overhung the sky and shut
out the starlight with their thick veil.
A fine drizzling rain was falling.
A belated tradesman, returning from
the town, could hardly see the black,
winding road and, flinging the reins
aside, left his horse to find the way for
itself. The careful horse, treading firm
ly and warily, glanced from time to
time at the low railway line crossing
the black plain, hardly visible in the
darkness. The thin lines of glittering
rail, running straight as an arrow over
the broad sleepers and disappearing
whichever way one looked in the dense
blackness, had set up faint, hardly
audible hum. heralding the approach of
the train. From somewhere in the far
distance came the long, low whistle of
the engine. The horse pricked up its
ears and neighed, snuffing the air. Its
master gathered up the reins and turned
little aside from the embankment.
In a few moments two fiery eyes ap-
peared on the horizon. The rails gave a
sharp ring, and the train swept along
the smooth line with the coquettish mo-
tion of skater ON the ice and fled roar
ing past like whirlwind in cloud of
smoke, lighting up the spot for an in.
stant and f1inging crimson glow on to
the low clouds that hung looking down
into its fiery entrails.
There was something festive and tri-
umphal in this long row of brightly
lighted moving palaces-so they seemed
that few so swiftly and so easily,
as at the waving of a magician's wand,
past the sleeping villages and black
fields and woods, laughing at space and
darkness and foul weather.
There is something of this look about
a ballroom, seen from the outside, gilt
tering with light and gliding, with the
band playing and the gorgeously dressed
dancers flashing before the plate glass
windows. The onlooker, standing out
side in the cold and darkness, involun-
tarily thinks of happiness and mefri-
ment and pleasure. But there are often
hidden tears in bathrooms, and in this
flying palace a gloomy drama was be-
ing enacted.
In a reserved first class compartment
about the middle of the train sat three
passengers Two of them were in mill
tary uniforms, blue, edged with white,
showing them to be gendarmes. The
third, evidently their prisoner, was in
civilian dress. So far as one could judge
from his slender figure and the fair,
curly beard and mustache, showing
from under the hat he had pulled over
his eyes, he seemed to be young.
One of the gendarmes was stretched
kn kn
sat in corner, holding himself un-
naturally upright and making desperate
efforts to keep awake. From time to
time, however, he nodded, then ener-
getically shook himself and glanced
suspiciously at the young man whom
they were escorting
The prisoner, leaning back in his
corner with his legs stretched out be-
fore him, appeared to be sleeping sound
ly. His chest rose and fell slowly and
evenly, and his quiet. regular breath
ing could be heard in the intervals of
the rattling made by the train. But if
any one had suddenly peeped under the
wide brim of his felt hat he would have
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ing, intense watchfulness that plainly
showed how far the young prisoner was
from sleep. His brain was at work upon a
plan of escape-an audacious, desperate
plan-and now all his fate depended
upon whether this red faced, thick
headed gendarme should 60 to sleep or
not From under the brim of his
slouched hat he watched without let
ting his attention wander for moment.
The gendarme swayed to and fro like
a long pendulum about to stop. Then
be suddenly fell forward almost on to
the head of his sleeping comrade and
started up, glancing keenly at the pris-
oner, who remained IL the same posi-
tion as before.
Then the gendarme, satisfying him
self that all was safe, would open his
eyes wide and stare at the wall, strug-
Cling to keep his eyes open. Several
minutes passed. The train rushed on
and on, piercing the darkness before it,
with the wheels beating out regular
tune as they turned. The windows kept
up a weak, plaintive rattle, and the in.
cessant jolting, softened by the springs
of the thick cushions, acted as all ire
sistible sopori6o on the dull brain of a