The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1906-08-18
Prisoners and CdpfiYeS
By II. s. MERRIMAN
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and quite the sharpest In Siberia at the
present moment"
He will need to be; though I think
that the worst Of his journey is over.
The cream is, as he says, at Moscow.
Once beyond Mini he will find milk. then
milk and water, and finally beyond Ir-
kutsk the thinnest water. The official in
tellect in Siberia is not of brilliant de-
scription. Pavloski can outwit every
gendarme or Cossack commandant he
meets, and once out of Irkutsk they need
not fear the law. They will only have
Nature to compete with, and Nature al
ways gives fair play. When they have
assembled they will retreat north like an
organized army before rabble, for there
are not enough Cossacks and gendarmes
in Northern Siberia to form anything
like an efficient corps of pursuit. They
may follow, but shall have the fugitives
on board and away long before they reach
the seaboard"
How many are there in Yakutsk :"
1.-TWO thousand altogether, soldiers and
Cossacks They have no means of trans
port and no commissariat corps. By the
time that the news travels south to va
kutsk, that there is a body of supposed
exiles to the north, our men will have
gained such an advantage that pursuit
would be absurd"
ut seems" replied Easton. 80 very
simple that l wonder no one has tried it
before"
Simply because no one has had the
money. l know several whaling captains
who would be ready enough to try, pro-
yided they were paid. The worst danger
was the chance of the three men being
captured as soon as they entered Russia.
They are now at their posts in Siberia.
In May they meet surreptitiously on the
southern slope of the Verkoioniska, cross
the mountains, and they are safe. The
three leaders will then be together, and
they will retreat north as arranged,
soaring the Iamschcks into obedience,
and taking all the post deer and dogs
with them, so that an immediate pursuit
will be impossible. | think" added the
organizer of this extraordinary plot,
that we shall succeed"
AS the middle of February approached
Claud Tyars was TRANQUILITY engaged in
his preparations. Several ladies were
pleased to express their disapproval of
this afectation of hard work and failed
to see why his evenings should be de-
voted to a task for which he had plenty
of time during the day.
1t would be hard to determine how
far Tyars realized his position. He was
disciplinarian of the finest mold and it
is probable that he had never, up to this
time, allowed for moment the fact that
he loved Helen Grace. This determine
tion to cultivate the blindness of those
who will not see was not dictated by cow
ardice; because Claud Tyars was, like
most physically powerful men, Inclined
to exaggerate the practice of facing dis
agreeable facts with both eyes open. He
had refused to realize this most incon-
venient truth, because he was oppressed
by vague fear that realization meant
betrayal.
He now suspected that Miss Winter
had known all along that Helen Grace
was not the same to him as other wom-
en-. Added to this was a suspicion that
she calmly and deliberately undertook
the task of forcing him to say as much
to Helen herself. He could think this
now without vanity.
Matthew Mark Easton stood and
watched. as you may have watched these
slow. strong rivers, and knew that his
friend was passing on to some new coun-
try with a purpose which he could not
stay nor turn aside. Probably he felt q
little doubtful of Claud Tyars-feft that
he could not rely upon him to act like
other men. At any moment the unexpect-
ed might supervene.
Deeply, however, as he felt his respon-
sibility, anxious as he was, he never lost
spirit. He was one of those men whose
courage rises to the occasion. and while
he recognized fully that without Claud
Tyars failure was inevitable, he would
not blind himself into the belief that the
leader was absolutely safe.