Evening star., 1927-03-13
Intended Victim Unscahed He Faces Voey of Firing Squa
udrdNG Flight tIsNme mOpnSd Sdgs sAcn@R uhomyR


was protecting my face I'm a big
shawl. which Dunia had thrown over
nv head, while Serge was sheltering
his eyes az though from the sun. We
finally hailed an iZvostchik In 'front.'
of the hotel.
where shall go?" the man
asked.
straight ahead" answered Serge.
Then began that flight across
| nearly 500 miles of snow-eovered'
wind blown steppes.
One of the strongest OF my impres'
sions was the experience OF nearly
freezing. The sensation began In the
ha nds and the head was covered
with onIy a thin wooien shawl. At
first I felt terrible pains. as though
, some one were stripping on my SKIN;
then a numbness crept over me,
during which it seemed as though
my head were being squeezed in
wise.
Following this came feeling Of
utter and wonderful calm. The pain
disa ppeared and left me with the
comfortable feeling that ] was going
| to sleep. knew, as through haze
of understanding. that l was freez,
ing; but In that state death seemed
only agreeable.
4
me and tried, as best he could. to
shelter me from the wind with his
body and made me talk. 1 answered
him with effort-my lips seemed
loath to move.
At last we arrived at our next stop
ping place, where / climbed out OF
| the sleigh with dihicuity. As L be
gan to warm up, / was excrucaattngly
| tortured by the pain OF my frozen
body coming back to life. Our re
markably cordial Tartar host rubbed
tmy hands and feet with snow to bring
out the frost and restore the circula
ton. When we left him an hour and
a half later he gave me an enormous
sheepskin coat, saying:
ut belonged to my dear wife. Keep
| IL IL YOU need 1t or send II back by the
yamstchik."
The snowstorn we had been having
was over. and the day was now beau
| tifuliy clear. felt comparatively
warm and busted myself with divert
| ing Serge and making him forget his
| thoughts about Orenburg. 1t was
then that he recounted to me for the
first time all that had happened tC
him that last night In town.
| When felt that l now dared tc
ask him more about the details oi
| their attempt to shoot him. he con
fessed to me that he believed he mus
have tainted from fear just before the
soldiers fired, and that his knees gave
away such fraction of a second in
advance of the crash Of the rifles that
| the soldiers, in the indistinct light oi
| the moon, never realized what had
| happened nor saw that they had only
shot off his papakha instead OF hi'
head.
THE village at which we arrived
this night was a Russian insteaf
of a Tartar one. and 1t was there that
we fell in with the Bolshevik sailor
yamstchiks who nearly drove Serge
into revealing himself through the in
cident of their having on the table Q
bottle of the vodka taken from tht
| distillery on his family's estate. Al
their table, az everywhere, ii was very
difficult for me to play the part OF q
peasant woman and do without a knife
and fork or eat soup oat OF the com
mon tureen. II was likewise far from
easy to fall into their way OF speak
| Ing, but what / feared would give me
away, as glaringiy as though 1 had
never changed my costume, were my
hands Try as / would to hide them
or to rub them so that they would be
red. they filled me with fear and tor
mented me all the time.
| A subsequent night In q Tartar VII
| lage was much more agreeable and in.
teresting for us. The genial old host
| led us away through half the village
from the big establishment, where the
travellers stayed. to a neat little house
| in which his older wife lived, while
| the younger one presided over the hos
| telry.
| After a wonderful rest that night ir