The Washington herald., 1919-04-06
The Amazing Story of
Maria BOtchkarepa

and informing him of the incident.
Yasha only had sufficient self-control
to thunder the question:
Swear. are you telling the TRUTH
The young rascal answered;
"Of course it's the truth"
When Yasha appeared on the thresh-
old / observed Immediately with hor-
ror that he was in a feroeious mood,
suppressing a storm. That made him
the more dangerous. He spoke slow
ly, coming his words deliberately,
words which struck terror to my soul.
You are a faithless woman, a har-
lot, You always have been faithless,
deceiving me continually. but you are
caught now. and you won't escape.
It's fortunate that Dmitri is a decent
young fellow and repelred your ad-
vances. You can say your last
prayers, you base creature"
While speaking thus Yasha proceed
ed in a cold, businesslike, purposeful
manner to make a moose to hang me.
1t was this calm about Yasha's ac-
tions, bespeaking his terrible earnest
ness. that made shivers run over me.
''Yasha, l am innocent. Yasha,"
sobbed, throwing myself at his feet
and kissing them. Il swear that 1 am
innocent, CTleu. nave merry
think what you are doing! u tell you
l am Innocent
Yasha went on with his prepara-
tions, undisturbed.
He attached the rope to a hook on
the ceiling and tested the moose.
"Yasha, come to your senses" ! i'm
plored, hugging his legs.
He pushed me aside. placed a stool
under the rope and ordered me, in a
terrifying voice, to stand up on it.
Now, say your last prayers" he re-
peated.
He then placed the moose around my
neck and Jerked the stool from under
my feet. In an instant 1t frightened
about my throat; I wanted to cry out
but could not; the pressure against
the crown OF my head was so terrific
that it seemed about to crack open.
Then I lost consciousness.
AS the moose was Tightening around
my neck Yasha came to himself and
hastened to loosen it. l dropped. life
less, to the floor. In response to his
calls for help several politicals. among
whom were couple of medical
students, came running to the house.
They made every effort to revive me,
succeeding only after long and per-
sistent exercises. When l opened my
eyes. the whole colony was at my bed
side. Pressed for an explanation of
his inhuman act Yasha told of Dmi-
tri's story.
Then Prince Gutemurov revealed
what he had seen the previous night.
on his way home. Yasha was over
whelmed. He fell on his knees and
begged my forgiveness, cursing Dmi-
tri and promising to make short work
Of him. But Yasha could not find
him. Dmitri learned of the disclosure
and disappeared forever from Amiga.
Soon afterward, another incident oc-
CURED which further embittered my
life with Yasha. In his absence Va
sill, a political, came and told me that
the authorities were in receipt of an
order to arrest and send him to Ir-
kutsk to be tried on a new charge.
which carried with it the death
sentence. 1t was a regular practice
of the Tsar's government to recall
eXiles for second trials on some addi-
tional bit of evidence
Vasili asked that I lend him our
horse. Maltchik, to help him escape.
Knowing how attached Yasha was to
the horse, l refused Vasilrs request.
But he persisted in imploring me.
claiming that Prince Gutemurov had
seen the order for the arrest. and that
the sheriff was already on his tracks.
But how could the horse be re-
turned?'' I asked Vasii, touched by
his continuous pleading. He replied
that he would leave it with a certain
Yakut friend Of ours, some hundred
veTsts away. and l finally yielded.
aifhnthOh NUit hui, Aa
soon as he left with Maltchik my
anxiety grew into alarm. l hurried
to Prince Gutemurov to verify Vasilr 3
story. How thunder-struck l was up
on learning from the prince that he
knew of no order to arrest Vasili, and
that he had even not seen him. 1t
was clear that l had been swindled
and that 1 would never see the horse
again.
My God!' l thought, what will
happen upon Yasha's return and his
discovery that Maltchik is gomez The
specter of death rose up before me.
the Impression of my recent escape
from hanging still fresh in my mind.
/ was all a-tremble in anticipation of
Yasha, with the feeling of an en-
trapped animal seeking an escape. But
there seemed to be no opening
1t was August 1914 The rumblings
of the great collision were just reach
ing the remote Siberian provinces. The
order for mo5iliza ton came. and there
was a great stirring. even in the
death-bound Arctic settlements, as II
suddenly a new life had been infused
into that land of monotony. Upon
the heels OF the call to arms came the
Tsar's manifesto. abolishing the
scourge of our national life-vodka.
and with it gigantic wave of popu-
lar enthusiasm, sweeping the steppes,
valleys, and forests of vast Russia,
from Petrograd and Moscow, across
the Ural mountains and the Siberian
tundras and taiga, to the borders of
China, and the Pacific coast.
There was something holy about the
nations response. Old men, VINO had
fought in the Crimean war in the
Turkish campaign of 1S7-7S, and the
Russo-Japanese war, declared that
they never saw such exaltation of
spirit. 1t was an elevating, glorious.
unforgettable moment in ones life. My
soul was gripped, and l had a dim
realization of a new world coming to
life, purged world, happier and
Godlier one.
And when Yasili robbed me of our
horse, and the dread of Yasha' s
frenzy had seized me, intensified by
my inability to find an escape, the
thought, WAR; suddenly flashed in
to my mind.
HGo to war to help save thy coun-
try" a voice within me called.
To leave Yasha for my personal
comfort and safety was almost un-
thinkable. But to leave him for the
field of unselfish sacrifice, that was a
different matter. And the thought of
going to war penetrated deeper and
deeper into my whole being, giving