ldiers, musket in hand, standing by them. A few men
were listlessly moving about, while others were digging and working in
small garden patches into which the inclosures were divided. The
policeman who accompanied Godfrey led him to one of the little huts. He
opened the door and went in. A young man was sitting there.

"I have brought you a companion," the policeman said. "He will share
your hut with you. You can teach him what is required." With this brief
introduction he closed the door behind him and left. The young man had
risen, and he and Godfrey looked hard at each other.

"Surely we have met before!" the prisoner said. "I know your face quite
well."

"And I know yours also," Godfrey replied.

"Now that you speak I know you. You are the young Englishman, Godfrey
Bullen."

"I am," Godfrey replied; "and you?"

"Alexis Stumpoff."

"So it is!" Godfrey exclaimed in surprise, and, delighted at this
meeting, they shook hands cordially.

"But what are you here for?" Godfrey asked. "I thought that you had
obtained an appointment at Tobolsk."

"Yes, I was sent out as assistant to the doctor of one of the prisons. I
suppose you understood that it was not the sort of appointment one would
choose."

"I was certainly surprised when I heard that you were going so far
away," Godfrey said, "as my friends told me that you had property. It
seemed almost like going into banishment."

"That was just what it was," the young doctor laughed. "I had been too
outspoken in my political opinions, and one or two of our set had been
arrested and sent out here; and when I was informed, on the day after I
passed my examinations, that I was appointed to a prison at Tobolsk, it
was also intimated to me that it would be more agreeable to go there in
that capacity than as a prisoner. As I was also of that opinion, and as,
to tell you the truth, some of our friends were for pushing matters a
good deal farther than I cared about doing, I was not altogether sorry
to get out of it."

"But how is it that you are here as a prisoner?" Godfrey asked.

"That is more than I can tell you. Some two months ago the governor of
the prison entered my room with two warders, and informed me briefly
that I was to be sent here as a prisoner. I had ten minutes given me to
pack up my things for the journey, and half an hour later was in the
cabin of a steamer, with a Cossack at the door. What it was for, Heaven
only knows. I had never broken any regulat