CHAPTER VIII.
THE MINES OF KARA.
Godfrey found it a difficult matter to decide what was best to be done;but after two hours' thinking his mind was quite made up. He did notstand in the same position as Alexis with the Buriats. It was Alexis whohad laid them under such an obligation by saving their child's life. Hehimself was simply liked as the doctor's companion, and without Alexisthe long months of winter would be dreary indeed. He thought thatimprisonment would be preferable to living alone in a Buriat hut.Accordingly he rose at last, and told the Buriat that his course wasdecided.
"I shall give myself up," he said. "I know that you would make mewelcome in your tents; but from what you have told me, I see that thereis no prospect whatever of an escape through China, and that if I go outto the plains I shall be there for life, while if I go to a prison I mayin time be released, or at any rate I can again escape."
"Whenever you come to us you will be welcome," the Buriat said. "Foryourself, you know best; but we shall be all sorry to lose you. Is thereanything I can do for you? I know the governor here, for I have hadlarge dealings with him for sheep and cattle for the troops."
"I shall be very glad if you will go with me to him," Godfrey said. "Aword from you may be of great advantage to me. There are no prisonshere, and I am most anxious to be sent to Nertchinsk and not to Irkutsk,because it was from there we escaped."
The Buriat's wife and sister were sorry when they heard Godfrey'sdetermination, but they were too much occupied with Alexis to try anddispute it.
"When will you go?" the Buriat said.
"At once, if you will take me. I have no preparations to make; I onlycause extra trouble here, and can be of no assistance. But first, if youwill procure paper, pen, and ink, I will write a letter for you to giveto Alexis when he recovers, telling him why I leave him."
The Buriat sent out one of his men, who presently returned with writingmaterials, and Godfrey then wrote a long letter to Alexis, explaining atlength the reasons that actuated him in deciding to give himself up.
"You are in good hands," he said, "and I could do nothing for you; andin any case I should have to leave you now, for did I not give myself upI must leave this evening, therefore I could do no good to you in anycase. I know that you were half inclined to stay with the Buriats, andyou will now have even greater reasons for doing so than before. If,however, you should at any future time change your mind and try to makeyour escape, I need not tell you how delighted I should be to see you inEngland. I inclose the address of my father's office, where you will besure either to find me or to hear of me. But even if I have not got homeyou will receive the heartiest welcome when you tell him of our havingbeen together and show him this letter, and you may rely upon it that myfather will be able to procure a situation for you in London, even if hecannot find a berth for you in his own house of business."
When he had finished he handed the letter to the Buriat to give toAlexis.
"Here is money," the Buriat said, "which my wife found upon Alexis. Youhad better take it with you."
"I cannot do that," Godfrey said, "it is his; I have some of my own. Iknow he would gladly give it to me if he were conscious; but I cannottake it now."
"Very well," the Buriat said, "you are doubtless right; but at any rateyou can take some from me. I am rich. I have many thousands of sheep andcattle. If you do not take it I shall be offended, and shall think thatin some way we have displeased you. A thousand roubles are nothing tome; I have given as much for one suit of furs for my wife. You must takethis; if you ever attempt to escape again, you will need money."
After much debate Godfrey accepted five hundred roubles in notes, seeingthat the Buriat would be really pained by his refusal, and knowing thatthe money would indeed be useful to him when he next tried to make hisescape. Being anxious to hear the surgeon's next report about Alexis,Godfrey delayed his start until after his visit.
"There is no change," the doctor said, after examining his patient, "nordid I expect there would be after such serious injuries as he hasreceived. It would be strange, indeed, if he did not suffer from theshock. It may be some days before any change takes place. It is vastlybetter that he should be restless, or even wildly delirious, than lyingunconscious as he was when I first saw him. Well, and what are you goingto do, young fellow?"
"I am going to give myself up," he said.
"You have had enough of the plains, eh?"
"Yes, sir, for the present."
"Mind, don't be foolish enough to say that you have escaped; there isnot the least occasion for that; that would make the case a great dealworse."
"My friend here was going with me to the governor, doctor, to tell himthat I have been living with him for some time."
"Yes, that is all well enough; but if you give yourself up it is aconfession that you have escaped; that won't do at all. I tell you whatwill be the best thing: I will go with you to Colonel Prescoff, thegovernor. I shall tell him the truth, that I was attending one of theBuriat's men, who had been badly injured by a bear, when I saw youthere. I found that you could not give a good account of yourself, andhad no papers, and that, therefore, as was my duty, I brought you tohim. Then you must say that you have been working here and there, andthat you come from, say, Tomsk. I suppose you have been there?"
Godfrey smiled.
"That is near enough," the doctor went on. "As for your papers, you lostthem, or they were burnt or stolen from you. He won't ask you manyquestions. Then the Buriat will speak up for you--he is rather animportant man, being one of the richest of his tribe--and say what hecan for you. Is there anything you want done particularly?"
"I want to be sent to Nertchinsk instead of to Irkutsk. I would ratherwork in the mines or anywhere else than be shut up in prison."
"And besides, you would not be known?" the doctor laughed.
"That is the principal thing, sir."
"Whatever you do, my lad," the doctor said, "if you have been apolitical prisoner--mind, I don't ask the question, and don't want toknow--but if you have been, don't let it out. It is better to have beena murderer than a Nihilist out here. I dare say the colonel would sendyou to Nertchinsk if your friend here asks him, but it is a good dealfurther and a more expensive journey."
"I will gladly pay for the vehicle, sir."
"Ah, well; if you will do that, I should think it could be managed. Iwill go in first with your friend and have a talk with the colonel, andwe will see if we can put the matter straight for you before you arecalled in."
Godfrey took his fur-lined coat, said good-bye to the two ladies, gentlyput his hand on his comrade's shoulder, and followed the doctor and hishost. When they arrived at the governor's house the doctor left him inthe room where two military clerks were writing, and went in with theBuriat to the governor. In five minutes the bell rang. An orderlyanswered it, and returning, bade Godfrey follow him. The governor wasseated at a table, the doctor and the Buriat standing near.
"So I hear," the colonel said, looking sharply at Godfrey, "that you areunable to give an account of yourself, and have nothing but acock-and-bull story of having wandered about through the country. Weunderstand what that means. However, our friend here," and he motionedto the Buriat, "speaks well of you, and says that you have done him someservice. However that cannot be taken into consideration. It is clearthat having no papers and no domicile, you are a vagabond, and as suchmust be committed to prison. You will be taken to Nertchinsk." Godfreybowed. The colonel touched the bell again, and the orderly entered."Take this man to the cells."
The Buriat stepped forward and shook hands with Godfrey. "Come again,"he said in a low voice, "you will always be welcome."
The doctor nodded. "I shall see you before you start," he said. Godfreysaluted the colonel and followed the orderly out of the room. He wastaken across a court-yard to a cell.
"A good style of young fellow," the colonel said when he left. "He haseither been an officer and got into some scrape with his colonel, or heis a
political."
"One or the other, colonel, no doubt," the doctor agreed.
"Well, it is no business of mine," the colonel said. "I suppose he hashad four or five months in the woods and wants to get into snug quartersagain before winter. Well, good morning, gentlemen!" and his visitorstook their leave.
Late in the evening the doctor came into Godfrey's cell. "By the bye,"he said, "I put your name down as Ivan Holstoff. It was as good as anyother, and you had to be entered by some name. I feared that you mightblurt out your own whatever it may be, and that might be fatal, for ifyou are a political prisoner your name will have been sent to everystation where there are troops."
"I am very much obliged to you, doctor, for your kindness," Godfreysaid. "I will take care to remain Ivan Holstoff. How much am I to payfor the carriage?"
"Your friend the Buriat has seen to that, and handed the governor moneyfor a vehicle there and back, as the soldier in charge of you will haveto return."
"It is very good of him," Godfrey said gratefully. "Please tell him whenyou see him how much obliged I am to him for his kindness to me."
"I think my patient will do," the doctor said. "He is quieter and lessfeverish this evening. I think he will pull round; and now good bye! Ithink you have done right in giving yourself up. You are but a lad yet,and with good conduct, now that you are entered only as a vagabond, youwill get leave to work outside the prison in two or three years, and geta permit to settle anywhere in Siberia a couple of years later."
The next morning at daybreak Godfrey was placed in a vehicle. A soldiermounted by the side of the driver, the latter shouted to his horses, andstarted at full gallop. Soon after leaving the town they passed acaravan of forty carts carrying tea. The soldier, who appeared a chattyfellow, told him they would be three months on their way to Moscow. At atown named Verchne Udinsk they regained the main road and turned eastand continued their journey through Chita, a town of three thousandinhabitants, to Nertchinsk, a distance of six hundred miles. The countrywas hilly, and for the most part wooded, but varied at times by rollingprairies on which large herds of cattle were grazing. The journey wasfar more pleasant than that Godfrey had before made, for being no longerregarded as a political prisoner his guard chatted with him freely; andat night, instead of having to sleep in the vehicle in the open air, hewas lodged in the convict stations, which, as the season was late, werefor the most part unoccupied. He was glad, however, when he arrived atNertchinsk, for the jolting of the springless vehicle was very trying.He did not see the governor of the prison, but was at once assigned to acell there on the guard handing to the authorities the official reportof the governor at Kiakhta.
"You are to go on again to-morrow," the warder said to him that evening."We are full here, and there is a party going on to Kara. You will gowith them. The barber will be here to shave you directly. You have notbeen out very long, judging by the length of your hair. Here is yourprison dress. You must put that on to-morrow instead of the one you haveon, but you may carry yours with you if you like, it will be useful toyou when your term in the prison is done."
Accordingly the next morning Godfrey was taken into the court-yard,where some fifty other prisoners were assembled, and ten minutes latermarched off under a guard of eight mounted Cossacks. He carried hispeasant's clothes and fur coat rolled up into a bundle on his shoulder,and had, after he changed his dress, sewn up his money in the collar ofhis jacket with a needle and thread he had brought with him, keeping outsome twenty roubles for present purposes. The journey occupied fivedays, the marches averaging twenty-five miles apiece. The prisonerstalked and sung by the way, picked the blackberries and raspberries thatgrew thickly on the bushes by the wayside, and at night slept in thestations, their food consisting of very fair broth, with cabbage in it,meat, and black bread. Godfrey was asked no questions. He did not knowwhether this was because the convicts thought only of themselves, andhad no curiosity about their companions, or whether it was a sort ofetiquette observed among them. Godfrey was surprised to find how muchthe country differed from the ideas he had formed of Siberia.
The forests were beautiful with a great variety of foliage. Late liliesbloomed by the roadside with flowers of other kinds, of whose names hewas ignorant. To the north was a chain of hills of considerable height.The forest was alive with birds, and he frequently caught sight ofsquirrels running about among the branches. No objection was offered bythe guards to their making purchases at the villages through which theypassed, except that they would not allow them to buy spirits. At thefirst opportunity Godfrey laid out four or five roubles in tea andtobacco, some of which he presented to the guards, and divided the restamong his fellow-prisoners, who forthwith dubbed him "the count." Atlength Kara was reached. It was not a town, but purely a convictsettlement, the prisoners being divided among four or five prisonssituated two or three miles from each other. They were first marched tothe most central of these. Here they were inspected by the governor, whohad the details of each case reported by the authorities of the prisonsthey had left. They were at once divided into parties in accordance withthe vacancies in the various prisons.
Only four were left behind. These were taken to a guardroom untilallotted to the various wards. One by one they were taken out, Godfreybeing the last to be summoned. He was conducted to a room in whichseveral convicts were seated writing; through this a long passage led tothe governor's room.
"You are known as Ivan Holstoff," the governor said when the warder hadretired.
"Yes, sir."
"Age?"
"Seventeen."
"Charged with being a vagabond, found without papers or documents, andunable to give a satisfactory account of yourself."
Godfrey bowed. The colonel glanced through the paper by his side signedby the governor at Kiakhta, and saying that the prisoner had been mostfavourably reported upon by a wealthy Buriat, a government contractorwith whom he had been living out on the plains.
"You persist in giving no further account of yourself?" the governorasked.
"I would rather say nothing further, sir," Godfrey replied.
"You are not a Russian," the governor said sharply.
"I am a Russian born," the lad replied.
"You speak with a slight accent."
"I was away for some years from my country," Godfrey replied.
"I suppose you would call yourself a student?"
"Yes, sir, I was a student until lately."
"You are a young lad to have got yourself into trouble. How was it? Donot tell me what crime you are charged with, but you can tell meanything else. It will go no farther, and there will be no record ofwhat you say."
Godfrey liked the officer's face. It was stern, but sternness is anecessity when a man is in charge of some three thousand prisoners, thegreater proportion of whom are desperate men; but there was a kindnessin the half-smile with which he spoke.
"I am here, sir, from pure misfortune. I have no doubt most people youquestion declare they are innocent, and I do not expect you to believeme. The facts against me were very strong, so strong that I believe anyjury would have convicted me upon them, but in spite of that I wasinnocent. I behaved like a fool, and was made the dupe of others, butbeyond that I have nothing whatever to blame myself for or to regret."
"It may be as you say," Colonel Konovovitch said. "I am not here torevise sentences, but to see them carried out. Conduct yourself well,lad, and in two years you will get a permit to reside outside theprison. Three years later you will be practically free, and can go whereyou like in Siberia and earn your living in any way you choose. Many ofthe richest men in the country have been convicts. I shall keep an eyeon you, and shall make matters as easy for you as I can."
He touched the bell, and the warder re-entered and led Godfrey away. Thecolonel sat for some little time in thought. He liked the lad's face andhis manner, which, although perfectly respectful, had none of theservility with which Russians generally address their superiors. "He didnot say that he was a Russian
," he said to himself, "only that he wasborn in Russia. I should say from his appearance and manner that he wasEnglish. What was he sent out here for, I wonder? He may have been aclerk and been condemned for forgery or embezzlement. He may have been apolitical prisoner, most likely that I should say. He may have got mixedup in some of these Nihilist plots; if so, he has done well to become avagabond. I can't help thinking he was speaking the truth when hedeclared he was innocent. Well, perhaps in the long run it will be thebest for him. A clerk's lot is not a very bright one, and I should sayhe is likely to make his way anywhere. He has a hard two years' timebefore him among those scoundrels, but I should think he is likely tohold his own."
Then he dismissed the subject from his thoughts and turned to a pile ofpapers before him.
Godfrey, on leaving the presence of the governor, was taken by thewarder to one of the prison blocks, and was handed over to the prisonofficial in charge of it. He was taken to a small room and therefurnished with a bag in which to keep his underclothing and othereffects.
"You will use this bag for a pillow at night," the official said. "Whatmoney you have you can either give to me to take charge of for you, orcan hand it over to the head man of the room to lay out for you as yourequire it, or you can keep it yourself. If you choose to hold ityourself you had better keep a very sharp look-out; not that there areany professional thieves here, it is only for very serious offences thatmen are sent east of Irkutsk."
Godfrey thanked the official, but said that what little he had he mightas well keep with him. His money in paper was safely hidden in thelining of his convict jacket, and as he knew that that would be worn bynight as well as by day, it was perfectly safe there. He was providedwith some flannel shirts and other underclothing.
"I see you have underclothing of your own," the official said; "but ofcourse you have the regular allowance given you; if you run short ofmoney you can sell them. Now come along with me."
Godfrey was led into a large room, where the scene somewhat widelydiffered from what he had pictured to himself would be the interior of aprison at the dreaded mines of Kara. The room was large and fairlylofty; the walls were clean and whitewashed; down both sides ranbenches, six feet wide, similar to one he had seen in an Englishguard-house. There were some sixty men in the room; some of these werelying upon the bed-places smoking pipes, others were sitting on themtalking together or mending their clothes, and several parties wereengaged in card-playing. Save for the ugly gray uniforms with thecoloured patches in the centre of the back, significant of the term ofimprisonment to which their wearers had been sentenced, and thestrangely shaved heads of those present, he might have been in asingularly free-and-easy barrack-room. Most of the men looked up as theofficial entered.
"A new comrade," he said. "Mikail Stomoff, do you take him in yourcharge;" and having said this he at once left the room.
Mikail Stomoff, a big powerful man, came across to Godfrey. He was thestarosta or head man of the ward, elected to the position by the votesof his fellow-prisoners. It was his duty to keep order and preventquarrelling, and to see that the ward was swept out and kept tidy. Hetransacted all business for the prisoners, made their purchases outside,and was generally the intermediary between them and the authorities. Inreturn for all this he was free from labour at the mines.
"Well, my lad," he said, "you began early. How long are you in for, andwhat have you done?"
"I am in here for being a vagabond," Godfrey said, "and I believe thepunishment for that is five years."
"A vagabond, eh? we have not many of them here. The wanderers generallywork their way west. However, I daresay you had your reasons, and Idon't know that you are not right, for most of us prefer hard work hereto the dulness of the prisons in the west. Now, lad," he went on,dropping his voice, "if you have got any money do not say a word aboutit. You will be robbed to a certainty if you keep it yourself. The bestthing you can do is to hand it over to me, and I will take care of itfor you." Godfrey nodded, and putting his hand in his pocket pulled outthe ten-rouble note he had set aside, and two or three smaller notes,and slipped them into the man's hand.
"You can have it out as you want it," the man said; "and anything youwant outside I can get for you out of it. The only thing prohibited isvodka."
Some of the other men came round, and Godfrey thought he had never seenmore villainous faces. Some of them were heavy, stolid, and stupid;others were fierce and passionate.
"He is a vagabond," Mikail said to them. "I don't know what he has beenbefore that, and if he is wise," and he gave a significant glance atGodfrey, "he will keep that to himself."
"I should say he had been a political," one of the men said in a tone ofcontempt, for there was a certain jealousy of the politicals among theconvict class; because, although their lot was really much harder thanthat of ordinary convicts, they were allowed to retain their ownclothes, were lodged separately, and were almost all men of education,and in many cases of noble family. The feeling was evidenced by theindifference with which the rest of the men strolled away again whenthey heard the suggestion.
"How do they all get tobacco?" Godfrey asked the starosta. "Is it partof the rations? Surely the money they may have when they come in heremust soon be spent."
"We may buy the tobacco," Mikail said. "Every man has something for hiswork. They pretend it is half the value of the work we do, but of coursewe know better than that. Still we all get something each day, and canspend it as we like. I don't think they allow smoking in the westernprisons, but they do in all those east of Irkutsk. The authoritiesencourage it, indeed, for it is considered healthy and keeps away fever.There are no fevers in summer, but in winter, from so many men beingshut up together, the air gets bad and sometimes we have outbreaks offever."
"But where do you buy your tobacco?"
"People come to the prison gates and sell it as we come back from work.You can buy anything except vodka, and you can buy that, though notopenly; it gets smuggled in."
"How many hours do you work a day?"
"Thirteen; but of course it is only for five months in the year. Inwinter the ground is too hard."
"Too hard!" Godfrey repeated. "Why, it never gets cold in mines."
"You don't think you are going to work underground, do you?" the mansaid; "there are very few underground mines here. It is all on thesurface. There are some underground, because I have worked in them. Iwould rather work there than here. They can't look after you so sharp,and you can take it as easily as you like."
Godfrey looked astonished. His ideas of the Siberian mines had beentaken from stories written by men who had never been within thousands ofmiles of them, and who drew terrible pictures of the sufferings ofexiles simply for the purpose of exciting feeling throughout Europeagainst the Russian government.
"But it is very unhealthy in the mines underground, is it not?"
"No; why should it be? It is much cooler and pleasanter workingunderground than it is in the dust and heat, I can tell you."
"But I thought all quicksilver mines were unhealthy."
"Quicksilver!" the man repeated; "there is not a quicksilver mine in allSiberia. There is gold and silver, but I don't believe there is a placewhere quicksilver is found. Anyhow there is not one that is worked. Theyhave been gammoning you, young fellow."
"Well, they have gammoned a good many other people too," Godfrey said."I know I have read frightful accounts of the sufferings of prisoners inquicksilver mines."
"Who wrote them?" Mikail asked. "There are a few convicts who may yearsafterwards be proved innocent, and allowed to return to Russia, but theyare not the sort that would write lies about this place, for if they didthey would soon find themselves on the road again. There are not a dozenmen who have ever made their escape. Some of them may have invented liesfor the sake of getting pity, and make themselves out to be hard used.Have you ever read any books by them?"
"Only one," Godfrey said. "It was written by Baron Rosen; he was apolitical prisoner who was pardoned
after being here a great many years.He described the life of political prisoners, of course, and even thatwas not very bad. Many of them had their wives with them, and they seemto have lived together pretty comfortably."
"Ah! well, I don't think a political prisoner who came here now wouldsay as much. They are sent to lonely settlements, many of them up atYakutsk; though, of course, there are some down here. It is a horriblydull life. Some of them do work in the mines, but they are better offthan those who have no work to do at all. I would rather be in formurder a hundred times than be a political; and what name do you go by,young fellow?"
"I am entered as Ivan Holstoff."
"That will do well enough. Don't you be fool enough to tell any one whatyour real name is. There are sneaks here as well as elsewhere who areglad enough to curry favour so as to get easy jobs, or to be let outsooner than they otherwise would be, by acting as spies; so you keepyour real name to yourself. If it got to the ears of the governor hemight find out what prison you escaped from and what you were in for,and if you were a political you would either be sent back there, or putwith the politicals here, so keep it to yourself."
"Shall I give you my watch?"
"Yes, I think you had better. It would be of no good to anyone who tookit as long as he was in here, but he would be able to sell it when hewent to live outside. I will take care of it for you. I have got a safewhere I keep the money and things locked.
"We have got to work, and pretty hard, but I tell you we are a good bitbetter off than they are in the prisons of Russia. We have got plenty toeat, though I cannot say much for its niceness; anyhow we are a long waybetter fed than the soldiers who look after us; but here comes thefood."
A warder brought in a huge tray upon which were placed bowls of a sortof soup, while two others brought baskets piled up with huge chunks ofblack bread. Mikail took from a cupboard a spoon, and gave it toGodfrey. "You keep this for yourself," he said; "we don't have knivesand forks, and do not want them."
"Is this a day's allowance of bread?" Godfrey asked, as he took hold ofone of the lumps.
"No. You get as much as that in the morning. Our allowance is fourpounds a day, two in the morning and two in the evening. The eveningbread generally lasts for evening and morning soup, and we take themorning bread away with us to eat in the middle of the day."
Godfrey sat down on the edge of the bed bench and ate his supper. As helooked at the men more carefully he saw that there were greaterdifferences between them than he had at first noticed. Some of them hejudged to have been gentlemen, and he afterwards found that there werethree or four who had been officers in the army, but sentenced for gravemilitary crimes. There were half a dozen in for forgery or embezzlement,and over thirty for murder. Some among the prisoners were Tartars. Thesewere all in for murder or robbery with violence.
"Where am I to sleep?" he presently asked Mikail.
"I sleep in that corner next to the wall. Put your bag next to mine.They are not so likely to play tricks with you then."
Godfrey was not sorry to lay himself down on the boards. There was noattempt at undressing on the part of any of the convicts. He would havethought the bed a very hard one a few months since; but he was now wellcontented with it, though he would have preferred rather more room oneach side.
"I suppose I ought to feel very miserable," he said to himself. "I can'tmake out why I don't. Here am I shut up with about a hundred asvillainous-looking fellows as one could want to see--something like halfof them murderers, all desperate criminals. I ought to be down in thedumps. It seems unnatural that I shouldn't be. I suppose I have a sortof Mark Tapley disposition, and get jolly under difficulties. Of courseI should feel it more if I hadn't made up my mind to escape somehow. Thecolonel seems a good sort of fellow, and even the prisoners speak wellof him. Then it is a comfort to hear that all that talk about thequicksilver mines was a lie, and the work is going to be no worse than agold-digger would have in California or a navvy at home. There is nogreat hardship about that, at any rate for a time. If it was not for thethought of how horribly anxious they must be at home about me, I shouldnot mind. It will be something to talk about all one's life. The firstthing for me to do is to learn from the others as much as possible aboutthe country. I have learned a lot about the geography of Siberia fromAlexis, and have got a good idea about all the rivers. I dare say Ishall learn a good deal more from some of these men. Another thing is topick up as much of their language as I can from these Tartar fellows.They seem to be scattered pretty well all over the country. At least Ihave seen some of them all the way I have gone. I know there are othertribes. Those fishing chaps they call Ostjaks are the ones I should havemost to do with. I expect one could get on with them if one happened toget them in the right vein. I suppose they speak some sort of dialectlike that of these Tartars. At any rate I should think it would be sureto be near enough for the natives to understand each other. I believeRussian helps with all these languages, for the Russians are themselvesonly civilized Tartars. At any rate one of the first things to be doneis to learn to speak the language, and I should be able to learn a lotabout the country from them too. I have got eight or nine months beforeone can think of making a start, for of course it must be done in thespring. It is the end of September now, though I have lost all accountof the days of the month."
So he lay thinking for a long time, always confidently and hopefully.Soon after daylight the convicts were astir.
"Is there any place where we can get water to wash?" he asked Mikail.
"There is a tap and a trough out there in the yard," the man said,looking somewhat surprised at the request.
Godfrey hurried out, threw off his jacket and shirt, turned the tap onto his head, and enjoyed a thorough sluice. Feeling vastly better forthe wash, he slipped on his things again and went into the room. He wasnot surprised now that he had woke with something like a headache, forthe air of the room was close and unwholesome. Breakfast similar to thesupper the night before was soon served. Godfrey had plenty of breadleft from the evening before, and put the piece now served out to himunder his jacket. Half an hour later the convicts, ranged two and two,started for the mines. The distance was five miles. The heavy tools weretaken in carts drawn by horses, and a guard of soldiers with loadedmuskets marched beside the line.
The mine was a large open cutting, and the prisoners were employed indigging the sand and carrying it on hand-barrows to the place where itwas to be washed. The work was not entirely performed by prisoners, asthere were many free labourers also employed. Godfrey was given ashovel, and his work consisted in loading the sand and gravel, as thepickmen got it down, on to the barrows. Being unaccustomed to work, hisback ached and his hands were blistered by the end of the day; but heknew, from his experience in rowing, that this would pass off beforelong. At any rate the labour was far easier than he had anticipated. Hehad expected to see overseers with whips, but there was nothing of thesort. A few men directed the labour, and spoke sharply enough if theysaw any of the prisoners shirking, but there was nothing to distinguishit from any other work of the kind, save the Cossack guards here andthere leaning upon their muskets, and certainly the men worked no harderthan ordinary labourers would do. Indeed, when the time was up and theprisoners started on their return towards the prison, the free labourerscontinued their work, and would do so, he afterwards learned, for somehours, as it would take a considerable time for all the sand obtainedduring the day to be thoroughly washed up and the gold extracted.Godfrey had at first looked narrowly at the sand as he shovelled it, forspecks of gold, but had seen none; and indeed the proportion of gold atthe mines of Kara was so small that they would not have paid if workedby free labour; but the produce served to lessen the expenses of theprisons, and the mines afforded work to the convicts. The prisonerswere not forbidden to talk, and Godfrey, who had happened to be placednext to a young fellow of the better class, learned a good manyparticulars as to the mines. He had seen no women at them, and asked ifthey were not employed at that
labour.
"I never heard of such a thing," the other said. "They have to work;they wash and mend our clothes, and scrub the floors, and help thecooks, but that is all. After working for a certain time, according tothe length of their sentence, they are allowed to live out of prison,and after a still further time are at liberty to settle down anywhere inSiberia they choose."
"Have you been here long?" Godfrey asked.
"I have been here three years," he said, "and I should be out by thistime if I had not run away last year."
"How did you get on?"
"I got on well enough till the cold weather came. There are plenty ofberries in the woods, and besides we occasionally came down and stolethings from the carts waiting at night at the post-houses. We got achest of tea once, and that lasted us all through the summer. There wereten of us together. Besides that, the people all along the road are verygood to escaped prisoners. They dare not give them anything, because, ifit were known they did so, they would be severely punished; but on thewindow-sill of almost every house is placed at night a plate with foodon it, in case any wanderer should come along. Of course when wintercame I had to give myself up."
"Do you think escape altogether is possible?"
"I don't say that it is not possible, for some have done it; but Isuppose for every one who has tried it, hundreds have died. There is noliving in the mountains in winter. Men do get free. There are a greatmany private mines, and in some of these they ask no questions, but areglad enough to engage anyone who comes along. After working there as afree labourer for a couple of years it is comparatively easy to movesomewhere else, and in time one may even settle down as a free labourerin a town; but there is no getting right away then, for no one can leaveSiberia without a passport giving particulars of all his life.
"You are not thinking of trying, are you? because, if you will take myadvice, you won't. It is all very well to go out for a summer holiday,but that is a very different thing from attempting an escape. I was afool to try it, but I had such a longing to be in the woods that I couldnot help it. So now I shall be obliged to work here for a couple ofyears longer before I can live outside the prison. I am here forknocking down my colonel. We were both in love with the same girl. Sheliked me best, and her father liked him best. He was a tyrannical brute.One day he insulted me before her, and I knocked him down. I was triedfor that, and he trumped up a lot of other charges against me; and therewas no difficulty in getting plenty of hounds to swear to them. So yousee here I am with a ten years' sentence. I don't know that I am notlucky."
"How is that?" Godfrey asked.
"There were half a dozen fellows in the regiment--I was one of them--whoventured to think for themselves. We had secret meetings, and were incommunication with men of other regiments. Well, I was sent off beforeanything came of it. But they got hold of the names of the others whenthey arrested some Nihilists at Kieff, and they were all sent out herefor life. I met one of them a few months back, and he told me so. So yousee it was rather lucky that I knocked down the colonel when I did.Besides, it is ever so much better to be a convict than a political. Idon't know how it was you had the luck to get turned in with us. I cantell you there is no comparison between their lot and ours. Still it ishateful, of course, living among such a gang as these fellows."
"They look pretty bad," Godfrey said.
"Bad is not the word for it," the other said. "A man I know who works asa clerk in the office told me that there are about two thousand twohundred prisoners in the six prisons of Kara, but of these only about ahundred and fifty are women. They are even worse than the men, for ofthe hundred and fifty there are a hundred and twenty-five murderesses,and of the others twelve are classed as vagabonds, and I suppose most ofthese are murderesses too. Out of the two thousand men there are aboutsix hundred and seventy murderers. That is not such a big proportion asamong the women, though, as there are nearly seven hundred classed asvagabonds, you would not be far wrong if you put down every other man asa murderer."
"It is horrible," Godfrey said.
"Well, it is not pleasant; but you must remember that a great many ofthese murderers may be otherwise pretty honest fellows. A great many ofthem have killed a man or woman when mad with vodka; some of the othershave done it in a fit of jealousy; a few perhaps out of vengeance forsome great wrong. The rest, I grant, are thoroughly bad.
"By the way, my name is Osip Ivanoff. There are two or three decentfellows in our ward. I will introduce you to them this evening. It makesit pleasanter keeping together. We have got some cards, and that helpspass away the summer evenings. In winter it is too dark to play. Thereis only one candle in the ward; so there is nothing for it but to lay upand go to sleep as soon as it gets dark. There is the prison. I dare sayyou won't be sorry when you are back. The first three or four days' workis always trying."