| Show AN ESCAPED CONVICT why tho Poll taia did not anko him the third elmp lama Lanc ahlie man and I 1 roo from tho bauks I 1 began life mua a other mill bandi do but my head WB set the right way on my derand I 1 got to be nu alra and twenty years ngo whan a great englith farm whose extend over many parts oc kosila started cotton mill at ekaterin burg I 1 was offered a post a a dare know on the siberian side of tb ural mountain and in the heart of the districts A man think twice be for he transports aad aih family to such a place but I 1 had nado up ray L inird to get on and this wa ft good chance to one in dinv inv I 1 waa not ill appointed I 1 looked titter the mill and it prospered we north country arc a thrifty folk and like in a plain way I 1 bared money andas it was the policy 0 the firm to keep in my pot and to carem personal ink resl in the undertaking I 1 was allowed to invest toy few hundred 0 coubles roubles in the mill cheso commonplace common place particular about my own affairs can hare very little in etrest for you r I 1 only tell them because otherwise scarcely what ba to follow oue evening lito in our short hutslar summer when the long day were fat drawing in we were in our family It lini room 1 engaged with some of the mill account and my difo with her sewing when lottie oar eldest daughter dauch ter ruined ID and without a fainted right away on the floor did not more frighten myself than it us for lottie ara a abil had never giren way to auy tancie ii lford baTe a good deal to up kot ber in that way and as loon as we bad to brint her mounil wo made ber tell n what bad been the it that abo biad bea alone in ber room when suddenly toward the window she awnee of a face closely the clas and nt ber what the face wa like she doable to describe but it appeared too ugly and horrible fora bumar boine if it could hare been called that of a man she sao bould not bato been 0 I 1 went out and looked round the house t wa to be een ave knew lottie to be n carl but wore inclined to think that her fancy anut baro played ber a trick tor once after a time my wife left the room to e about our supper my wife bo has been dead now abil nine had as thront nerve as any woman that I 1 ever knew nothing ever denied to knock her oil her balance acu bo came laic i in a or two and beckoned me to the door she wal calm enough but I 1 could by lier face that wai wrong she not ay what ahe had to say before the cirl ber so he whispered to me cut tide lottie inuit have been richt there in about when I 1 opened tho door of the the larder that it 1 I beard i at the window aay have beau it took alarm and did not let me see it but it bas left it mark ou the lattice I 1 followed her to the all was now quiet there I 1 alio furt ocAla a tn bunla wo call the window of such a in timo its elai casement was reinfred rei nored and it was now only protected by lattice of crowed ot nr wood trips were 1 had tried to dorco thom out and thus to caan caln entrance the a was about lareo enough to bare the body of a man WB to be een by looking out cpr 11 nin jint ia tw il wa auty enough to how thine wilh any in the open and I 1 bad the back of our houe by young clr trees 1 to my wife that tho should co back to bottlo and that I 1 would atay I 1 was fora bit and soo aber tho robber if it wa a robber would como acain it w scarcely to be called late yet it wa of oar mill people to be about and they were our only neighbors indeed we bad no near neighbors ily houar and one it intended for another employed emp loye but ut that almo unoccupied stood partly within the haltli wooden which the mill that is their backs opened into the the as wo call it while fronts looted on a public thoroughfare thus our back premises were strictly after the pate to tho mill bad ben doled and the person it it was a pernon who bud KOtt otho windows matt either ciara secreted blanck within the acor or bava cauncil to it in some improper manner now however all was still a could be down I 1 st to watch celoso by the door of the I 1 choso dark corner and one where intro duk it would have been hard matter to ce taw but I 1 had full view of the lattice I 1 waited till my patience was to wear out and then fancied abat I 1 heard nome light sound under alfo it ws that at farst I 1 was not sure whether it might not be merely fancy but after a little pauna I 1 heard it again louder and more 1 sat still as a BOI kept a sharp loo bout and raised befaro the opening it but ia abo debt I 1 could not say whether it WL a fiuman efad or that of some bruto creature it be I 1 could see enough of it to know that it was tuch a wild unearthly look as I 1 bad never looked lopoo bo fore any quantity it chagy hair was about it and ian only features to speak tle boyc eat it had past all mistake never did eseo anything alko the wy in which it glared at good within 1 havo seen what famished roll looks like and I 1 hardly think a furnished wolf worth ath that creature it wo ravenous after whit it saw up badde CRino two touches of long claws which wrenched nt tho wooden lattuco ail II 11 to mettr it but they were too weak tho held fast and then tho thing fell to with iti teeth to gnaw a way while tho was thui encased I 1 contrived to blip quietly from iny dark tho door and catching up a tie stick went out at the back ot the home I 1 tolo around n n I 1 tow ard tho window were a I 1 said young clr trees oil that d ot the bouse no that i rare it ans not to approach altce alion 1 I 1 go to ft few yards I 1 saw that abo was ft man was till hard at work trying to force n way in I 1 dropped my stick and made a rush at him and had him before he knew anything abolt it he struggled hard desper ottly I 1 may say Butr bless yon I 1 hed not n ghost ofa chance with me I 1 nm a tolerably strong nian nelll an men go and I 1 was younger then I 1 could have undertaken izreo uch B lio and thought nothing ot it the poor wretch liace no tort of condition about him he wa clero skin and bones no at all iio was nothing but a walking anatomy with n fow rags by way of covering and only n very fow all tant ho rained by hs i a good shaking for I 1 rave him ono that buado tooth in bl licad chatter aud laid him flat on his back 1 had boon ion enough in the country to gala boino knowledge 0 russia I 1 uio it pretty freely to our mill people and I 1 must own that for terms in which to blackguard a sot ot lazy as angst 0 thoa an a patch on it 80 I 1 could make roy pr loner understand me now then my friend I 1 donld tl him vou inka aka n more light yoa it wont pi so just get up and march quietly ait oit with mo to abo oncA nocA tho being as you know to alie police station in english 0 getting up and doing B ha WAS told ilka n tho creature contrived to wriggle insl upon its anres and to hold up UK handi while it bogra of mo in the nameon the virgin and all the balew not to band it over to alio llio it would rather bo killed out and was ready to bo beaten as much as I 1 my ragged friend I 1 said vou are a queer choal why do you object to the police 10 the poor wretch made no direct answer but only reiterated his entreaties that I 1 would not give him up I 1 began to lave some suii clon 0 the ot rny guest 1 I am inclined to think I 1 ald that you arc neither more or loais than an escaped convict luttell lut teal of to deny it ho only to pity alca a before law I 1 terribly hard on taboo who in auy way in or conceal tho a of that I 1 was aware but though I 1 ain a big fellow to look nt and in omo mu hold my own as well ill any man I 1 bavei been a poor fott beartel fool in othan I 1 wa to led downright gorry tor that lt wa not so moch bis that ino bli look well I 1 laid suppose I 1 dont alvo yon up but let yon va thant f he would always remember ma with gratitude ha would go on bit yn kt once and do harm to my property he was no thief lie and only entered abl aroi hi roelf but tatt abo tight 0 food had him he wa famishing and ho dared not be he had walked how far lie could not tell perhaps a thousand ver bertand tand all way be had not daral to isk for food scarcely to to a living ho waa trying to reach hi own tillage perhaps a further it I 1 would only set him free bo would go on at once that was about th ot the el lows answer ills appearance to arar out bis statements and I 1 was inclined to believe him its adeer aion tenso I 1 aid for you to talk of betting oil or a walk of it I 1 lot you go you might as well tall of flying you have not the to walk to yoo would only fall by the roadside yon scarecrow scare crow and die la a ditch I 1 should tx doing abo kinder thing by you if I 1 hand you to tb if I 1 alo let yo go I 1 must alv you something to eat first come with roe tho wretch hardly believed that I 1 meant to fed him and would have runaway I 1 took him into the empty house of which I 1 bad the kov and fetched him as much food as I 1 it sata for him to cat so there I 1 wa with an escaped convict on iny hands had I 1 been moro prudent I 1 should have that the fellow was likely a hardened scoundrel quito undeserving of pity and that his gratitude would probably bo shown either by robbing me or it he should happen to fall into the hands of the police by getting mo luto trouble to savo bis own worthies neck I 1 ought to hava thought 0 the things but as I 1 said before I 1 am softhearted soft hearted old fool and neglected to do so 1 kept him in that empty house for several days in fact till he bad so far recovered his strength as to b fit to go on nobody knef about him not oven abo members of my own family for if I 1 was doing a thing I 1 bad sense enough to rua a risk over it a possible feodor for that my convict told me was his name me on some few points of bis history ills native villace was bo slid in the government of and he bad loft it to got work in the town of ivanovs Iva novo where there are factories every man trie to inako out a good CAB for so I 1 did not feel myself bound to place implicit reliance rel ianco on Fo odors statement that ho had never committed anything that could properly be called a crime according to bis thawing the nolo ot bis troubles had bon ft daller with an 1 la poilet agona I 1 do not exactly remember the particulars but of course there was a woman in tho business blow bad passed and the had by a false charge procured feodora condemnation to siberia tor ll 11 this I 1 say was his story feodor told mo that his place of exile had been hero tar up tho country and of tho he had had to endure and 0 tho tyranny of officials ho saoko bitterly making bis escape the privations and dangers ho bad before reaching nuch as I 1 should not have boll ovod from bis word bad they not acca verl fled by his ap fora kisslan Kus be appeared to me to bo a not unintelligent fellow and I 1 pointed out aft mm ti ir annl alna la making his way to Ivono vaa distance of not leso than twelve hundred vast from as the crow lies and advised him as ho wa used to millwork mill work to stay and find employment where he was I 1 was weak enough to offer to and see what could bo done in the way of getting a passport for him but the follow was boot on going forward lie was resolved ho said to see bis family again and ho was resolved to see Mako rotT this SInk aroa was I 1 boand tho to whom feodor his troubles and it scorned to m that this particular hankering to ase this person meant a craving to have bi revenge I 1 confess that when this much I 1 felt no desaro to detain my friend feodor than was necessary I 1 wa glad to alv him something mor decent in the way of cloth ing than he hod brought and trifle in yh 0 la on hi lud to td 1 I 1 never expected to se him again nor to tle 0 and I 1 ww somewhat startled when a few weeks later among a gang of convicts which were being marched out of the on their way eastward I 1 1 I was standing close by when he pasion and was so much surprised to see him that I 1 somewhat imprudently perhaps spoke to him by name but will you belleve it the dog stared 1110 la the face and marched sol lenly by without word or agu of recognition 0 o much thought 1 tor gratitude i borne months later when the next summer was getting well advance I we had one night an alarm of firc many of the newer mills at me of stone but the main building of ours being coin paraU vely old was of wood it was a thing to blar op like a box ot matches it was not however in the main that jhb anre bad broan out bat lu some sheds connected with the main buildings by a ranke 0 shopping lau was billt but as ruck would have it covered with aloie bl oIe A coed runny people i wolf soon rot kt mostly our own hands anil 1 nod encouraged them n 0 I 1 could 10 cot tho alro but they stolla set ot rus nami AI i bo any in which they alki anro botio asen themselves at a urn is to delvo an wild aft thore were como few who worked well and fellow in particular I 1 n raz god fellow a boscar I 1 took him to be who really splendidly and in a way that ought to havo mado ta choso whoso dally bread on the exist ot alio llio mill ashamed of what between alio ot lazy scoundrels and want of water it was aiu plain tant alic sheds which were on arc could not ba saved and that what wa had to look to was alio rnell alk tho danger ot tho aiala building was ln every moment for the alro was to inako it any abo iban gl d root of which I 1 spoke I 1 could co what hail to in dono bad to 11 olt I 1 had a ladder reared the building nud or volunteer to mount it the hescht 0 that roof from abo ground wax and tho alro wa every moment matlins more and moro hold upon it tho shingles would bo a hard job and a hot one and it I 1 not to bo do clcil n ono kot 0 theio rold blooded mascali who had eatn oar dread for coira would conio forward I 1 blood at tho foot 0 tho ladder and told tham I 1 wa loll erod twenty rou lile eltty any man who would help me aut tt wa of no iwas about to mount alone the ragged stranger fellow whom I 1 bad boford observed working 0 o camo up ho had been too busy in another to know what wn forward boner that WM a almo or any particular notice 0 look yet 1 had an impression that ho wi not a st rancor to ini 1 lie looked up to tho roof the delay ot those few minutes lind alten n fearful nd to alio anro ahr jonta up there ho laid is tavina this hlll so to you it ic Is burned I 1 nin n bobear every kopeck I 1 am worth Is in it A hundred jt you willbo lp it n can talk of tho reword aci said ns ho arne jagt nia and up the ladder like 0 cat I 1 too acci ly perhaps to bo careful and I 1 nm a heavy man A round broke and down I 1 came with a knee ao much twisted that I 1 could scarcely stand it was no longer in my power tc climb to tho root but rom whore I 1 propped against n wall I 1 could ragged follow who wa up and dolour for three or four ordinary mon you should havo seen how he sent the battline line down boon from below iio seemed at times to be working with alro nil around him but lia wont on without it 1 never MW an alone A austian KO to it with A better will I 1 beard tho people round mo ay that bo worked mora like a lend than a mortal kanand so bo did iio bundled tho burning wood as chouch hl florem had boon iron instead 0 flesh and bone tad scarcely to shrink from tho names that blazed up round lils face iio never appeared to artst or stay tor breath until ho had succeeded in cut oft the communication between the fire and the luell ignado the men bilow sot iho ladder as handily AS they could for allm to get down and he did his best to reach it but ho must havo been quito faed up besl del beine pretty much and with the inoko anyway he lot bt tooti uR and down be went tho rafters and crashed omone tho burn lui rubbish below it was nn ugly fall wo got him out 0 well as wo could and anch a scorched copy ot aoda mace I 1 should beer with to e dul he wo still alive and to tho proposal to airry him straight to tho hospital I 1 sald ao take my home so they took him in after we had rot tho tiro bulto under and mado all safe about the mill 1 limped to tho ido 0 tho |
