The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1902-04-19
(coNTINUED)
CHAPTER vi.

rage, scarcely visible
among the clouds Of dust precedin,
them along the road. AS his horses
were evidently less fatigued than thos,
of the other traveller, he would not b.
long in ovcrtaking It, This was neither
tarantass nor telga, but post Der
lin, all over dust and looking as If i
had made long journey. The postil
ion was thrashing his horses with al
bis might and only kept them at 6
gallop by dint of abuse and blows. The
berlin had certainly not passed through
NovO-Saimsk and could only have
struck the Irkutsk road by some less
frequented route across the steppe
Michaeps first thought on seeing this
berlin was to get in front of it and ar
rive first at the relay, so as to make
sure Of fresh horses. He said a word
to his driver, who soon brought him up
with the berlin.
AS he passed head was thrust out
of the window of the berlin.
He had no time to see what it was
like, but as he dashed by he distinctly
heard this word uttered In an imperi-
GUS tone:
"Stopr'
But he did not stop. On the contrary,
the berlin was soon dstanced by the
tarantass.
1t now became regular race, for the
horses of the berlin, no doubt excited
by the sight and pace Of the others, re-
covered their strength and kept up for
some minutes. The two carriages were
hidden In cloud of dust. From this
cloud Issued the cracking of whips,
mingled with excited shouts and ex-
CARNATIONS of anger.
Nevertheless the advantage remained
with Michael, which might be very i'm
portant to him II the relay were poorly
provided with horses. Two carriages
were perhaps more than the postmaster
could provide for at least In a short
space Of time.
Half an hour after the berlin was left
Tar behind, looking only a speck on the
horizon on the steppe.
1t was 8 o'clock in the evening when
Michael and his companion arrived at
the posthouse In Ichlm.
The news was worse and worse with
regard to the invasion
Here had arrived just short time
before two men,
The one was English, the other
French. Both were tall and thin, but
the latter was sallow, as are the south
ern provencals, while the former was
rudy like a Lancashire gentleman.
The Anglo-Norman. formal. cold grave,
parsinonious Of gestures and words,
appearing only to speak or gesticulate
under the influence Of spring operat-
Ing at regular intervals. The Gaul, on
the contrary, was lively and petulant,
expressed himself with lips, eyes,
hands, all at once, having twenty diff
ferent ways Of explaining his thoughts,
whereas his interlocutor seemed to
have only one immutably stereotyped
on his brain.
The strong contrast they presented
would at once have struck the most
superficial observer. but a physiogno.
mist regarding them more closely.
would have defined their particular
characteristics by saying that il the
Frenchman was "all eyes," the Eng
ushman was "all ears"
In fact, the visual apparatus Of the
one had been singularly perfected by
practice. The sensibility of its retina
must have been as instantaneous as
that of those conjurers who recognize
card merely by rapid movement in
cutting the pack or by the ARRANGEMENT
only Of marks invisible to others. The
Frenchman, indeed possessed in the
highest degree what may be called "the
memory Of the eye"
The Englishman, on the contrary. ap-
peared especially organized to listen
and to hear. When his aural appara-
tus had been once struck by the sound
of voice, he could not forget it, and
after ten or even twenty years he
would have recognized 1t among a
thousand. His ears, to be sure, had
not the power Of moving as freely as
those of animals who are provided with
Large auditory flaps; but, since scien-
tifc men know that human ears pos
.sess, In fact, very limited power of
movement, we should not be far wrong
In affirming that those of the said
Englishman became erect and turned
In all directions while endeavoring to
gather In the sounds In a manner ap-
parent only to the naturalist. 1t must
be observed that this perfection Of
sight and hearing was of wonderful
assistance to these two men In their
vocation, for the Engllshman acted as
correspondent for The Daily Telegraph
and the Frenchman as correspondent
OF the-of what newspaper or Of what
newspapers he did not say, and when
asked he replied in a Jocular manner
that he correspondent with his cousin
Madeleine" This Frenchman, however,
beneath his careless surface was won
derfully shrewd and sagacious. Even
while speaking at random, perhaps the
better to hide his desire to learn, he
never fQrg0t sAlmself. His loquacity