s seen to that, and handed the governor money
for a vehicle there and back, as the soldier in charge of you will have
to return."

"It is very good of him," Godfrey said gratefully. "Please tell him when
you 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 less
feverish this evening. I think he will pull round; and now good bye! I
think 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, you
will get leave to work outside the prison in two or three years, and get
a permit to settle anywhere in Siberia a couple of years later."

The next morning at daybreak Godfrey was placed in a vehicle. A soldier
mounted by the side of the driver, the latter shouted to his horses, and
started at full gallop. Soon after leaving the town they passed a
caravan of forty carts carrying tea. The soldier, who appeared a chatty
fellow, told him they would be three months on their way to Moscow. At a
town named Verchne Udinsk they regained the main road and turned east
and continued their journey through Chita, a town of three thousand
inhabitants, to Nertchinsk, a distance of six hundred miles. The country
was hilly, and for the most part wooded, but varied at times by rolling
prairies on which large herds of cattle were grazing. The journey was
far more pleasant than that Godfrey had before made, for being no longer
regarded as a political prisoner his guard chatted with him freely; and
at night, instead of having to sleep in the vehicle in the open air, he
was lodged in the convict stations, which, as the season was late, were
for the most part unoccupied. He was glad, however, when he arrived at
Nertchinsk, 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 a
cell there on the guard handing to the authorities the official report
of 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 go
with them. The barber will be here to shave you directly. You have not
been out very long, judging by the length of your hair. Here is your
prison dress. You must put that on to-morrow instead of the one you have
on, but you may carry yours with you if you like, it will be useful to
you when your term in th