of it. The only thing prohibited is
vodka."

Some of the other men came round, and Godfrey thought he had never seen
more 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 been
before that, and if he is wise," and he gave a significant glance at
Godfrey, "he will keep that to himself."

"I should say he had been a political," one of the men said in a tone of
contempt, for there was a certain jealousy of the politicals among the
convict class; because, although their lot was really much harder than
that of ordinary convicts, they were allowed to retain their own
clothes, were lodged separately, and were almost all men of education,
and in many cases of noble family. The feeling was evidenced by the
indifference with which the rest of the men strolled away again when
they heard the suggestion.

"How do they all get tobacco?" Godfrey asked the starosta. "Is it part
of the rations? Surely the money they may have when they come in here
must soon be spent."

"We may buy the tobacco," Mikail said. "Every man has something for his
work. They pretend it is half the value of the work we do, but of course
we know better than that. Still we all get something each day, and can
spend it as we like. I don't think they allow smoking in the western
prisons, but they do in all those east of Irkutsk. The authorities
encourage it, indeed, for it is considered healthy and keeps away fever.
There are no fevers in summer, but in winter, from so many men being
shut up together, the air gets bad and sometimes we have outbreaks of
fever."

"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 not
openly; 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. In
winter 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 man
said; "there are very few underground mines here. It is all on the
surface. There are some underground, because I have worked in them. I
would 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 mi