Part 30 (1/2)

The poor young lady, filled with sweet sympathy and expectation, hoping to find him in Irkutsk, arrived there a fortnight too late. Imagine her anguish when, having travelled over four thousand miles of the worst country on the fact; of the world, she learned the cruel news. Still three thousand miles distant! But she set out to find him. Alas!

however, it was too much for her. She lost her reason, raved for a little while under restraint and died at the roadside.

Is it any wonder that there were in Russia real revolutionists, revolting not against their Tzar, but against the inhuman system of the camarilla?

Petrakoff and I spent a sleepless night in that rat-eaten post-house where the food was bad, and our beds consisted only of a wooden bench.

We had as companions half a dozen drivers, who had come with a big tea-caravan from China, ragged, unwashed, uncouth fellows in evil-smelling furs.

Indeed the air was so thick and intolerable that at two o'clock in the morning I took my sleeping-bag outside and lay in the sled, in preference to staying in that vermin-infested hut.

Next morning, the twenty-second of January, I signed the postmaster's book as soon as it grew light, and with three fresh horses approved of by Vasilli, we were away, leaving the Great Post Road and striking north along the Lena.

From that moment we entered an uninhabited country, the snowy dreariness of which was indescribable, and as day succeeded day and we pushed further north the climate became more rigorous, until it was no unusual thing to have great icicles hanging from one's moustache.

One day, a week after leaving Tulunovsk, we pa.s.sed through an entirely deserted village of low-built huts. I asked Vasilli the reason that no one lived there.

”This is a bad place, Excellency,” was the fellow's reply. ”All the people died of smallpox six months ago.”

And so we went on and on, and ever onward. Sometimes we would travel the whole twenty-four hours rather than rest in those horrible post-houses, and on such journeys we often covered one hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty versts, changing horses every twenty to thirty versts.

We covered seven hundred and fifty miles to Dubrovsk in sixteen days, and here, at the post-house, we met a party of Cossacks coming south after taking a convoy of prisoners to Olekminsk--half-way between Dubrovsk and Yakutsk--and handing them over to the guard sent south to meet them.

While taking our evening tea I chatted with the Cossack captain, a big, muscular giant in knee-boots who sat with his legs outstretched on the dirty floor, leaning his back against the high brick stove.

I was making inquiries regarding the prisoners he had recently brought up, whereupon he said:

”They were a batch of politicals from Tomsk. Poor devils, they've been sent to Parotovsk--and there's smallpox there. I suppose General Tschernaieff has sent them there on purpose that they shall become infected and die. Politicals are often sent into an infected settlement.”

”To Parotovsk!” I gasped, for it suddenly occurred to me that the woman of whom I was in search might be of that party!

And then I breathlessly inquired if Madame de Rosen, Political Number 14956, had been with them.

”She and her daughter were ill, and were allowed a sled,” I added.

”There were two ladies, Excellency, mother and daughter. One was about forty, and the other about eighteen. They came from Petersburg, and were, I believe, well connected and moved in the best society.”

”You do not know their names?” I asked anxiously.

”Unfortunately, no,” was his reply. ”Only the numbers. I believe the lady's number was that which you mentioned. She was registered, however, as a dangerous person.”

”No doubt the same!” I cried. ”How is she?”

”When they left Olekminsk she was very weak and ill,” he replied.

”Indeed, I recollect remarking to my lieutenant that I feared she would never reach Yakutsk.”

”How far are they ahead of us?” I inquired eagerly. The bearded man reflected for some minutes, making mental calculations. ”They left Olekminsk a fortnight ago, therefore by this they should be nearing Yakutsk.”

”And how long will it take me to reach Yakutsk?” I asked.

He again made a calculation and at last replied: