st outside the shop to see what he
does, and he will fear that he might get that hungry-looking knife into
him if he came out to raise the alarm."

All was quiet, and they were soon beyond the limits of the village, and
struck out for the country.

They held on for two or three miles, filled their water-skins at a
little stream running towards the lake, and then entering a wood pushed
on for some little distance, lighted a fire, and made themselves some
tea.

"We are fairly off now, Godfrey. We have become what they call
wanderers, and should be safe enough among the Russian peasants, most of
whom have been convicts in their time, in the villages north, for they
are always willing enough to help men who have taken to the woods. Well,
except in the villages, of which there are few enough about here, we are
not likely to come upon them. From here to the frontier are Buriats, and
indeed beyond the frontier. However as we have both got guns, we need
not be afraid of any small party. Of course some of them have guns too;
but I don't suppose they will be fools enough to risk throwing their
lives away for nothing. At any rate there is one comfort. There is
nothing to show that we are political prisoners now. We might be honest
peasants if it were not for these confounded heads of hair."

"I should think," Godfrey said, "we had better get rid of our hair
altogether. It will be some time before it grows, but anything will be
better than it is now."

"We have got no scissors, Godfrey, and we have no soap. If we had, those
knives of ours are sharp enough to shave with."

"We can singe it off," Godfrey said. "Not now, but in the morning when
we can see. I will do it for you, and you can do it for me. I would
rather be bald-headed altogether than be such a figure as I am now."

Accordingly in the morning they singed off their hair with red-hot
brands, then they changed their clothes for those they had obtained the
night before, folded up their great-coats, divided the tea, tobacco, and
the greater part of the powder and shot between them, put a portion in
their haversacks, and rolled the rest up in the coats, then strapped
these to their shoulders and started on their way.

"Now I feel ready for anything," Alexis said as they tramped along. "We
have no weight to speak of to carry, and we have means of getting a meal
occasionally. Now if we keep a little west of south we shall strike the
Selenga river, which runs through Mai