, and at times openly defied his authority. Had Mikail reported their
conduct they would have been severely punished; but they knew he was
very averse to getting any one into trouble, and that he preferred to
settle things for himself. He was undoubtedly the most powerful man in
the ward, and even the roughest characters feared to provoke him singly.

On one occasion, however, after he had knocked down a man who had
refused to obey his orders, six or seven of his fellow convicts sprung
on him. Godfrey, Osip, and three or four of the better class of convicts
rushed to his assistance, and for a few minutes there was a fierce
fight, the rest of the prisoners looking on at the struggle but taking
no active part one way or the other. The assailants were eventually
overpowered, and nothing might have been said about the matter had it
not been that one of Mikail's party was seriously injured, having an arm
broken and being severely kicked. Mikail was therefore obliged to report
the matter, and the whole of the men concerned in the attack upon him
received a severe flogging.

"I should look out for those fellows, Mikail," Godfrey said, "or they
may injure you if they have a chance."

Mikail, however, scoffed at the idea of danger.

"They have got it pretty severely now," he said, "and the colonel told
them that if there was any more insubordination he would give them the
_plete_; and they have a good deal too much regard for their lives to
risk that. You won't hear any more of it. They know well enough that I
would not have reported them if I had not been obliged to do so, owing
to Boulkin's arm being broken; therefore it isn't fair having any grudge
against me. They have been flogged before most of them, and by the time
the soreness has passed off they will have forgotten it."

Godfrey did not feel so sure of that, and determined to keep his eye
upon the men. He did not think they would openly assault the starosta,
but at night one of them might do him an injury, relying upon the
difficulty of proving under such circumstances who had been the
assailant.

The solitary candle that burned in the ward at night was placed well out
of reach and protected by a wire frame. It could not, therefore, be
extinguished, but the light it gave was so faint that, except when
passing just under the beam from which it hung, it would be impossible
to identify any one even at arm's-length. Two of those concerned in the
attack on Mikail were