useful," Mikail said; "but they are awkward things to
get. I dare not ask any of the people who trade here to get such a
thing. Ah! I know what I will do; I am losing my head. I will steal you
two from the kitchen; but that must be done the last thing, for if
knives were missed there would be a great search for them. What is the
next thing?"

"I should like a coil of thirty or forty yards of fine rope, and some
string. They are always useful things to have."

"That is so," the convict assented.

"Then I shall want some thread and needles."

"There is no difficulty about that; I can buy them for you at the gate.
I don't know what excuse to make to get you the rope, but I will think
of something."

"I don't think there is anything else, except that I should like these
twenty roubles changed into kopecks."

The man nodded. "When will you try?"

"To-morrow. It is dark now by the time we leave off work; it will be
easy to slip away then. Luka is going with me."

"That is good," Mikail said, "he will be very useful; he is a good
little fellow, and will be faithful to you. You had best keep steadily
west, and give yourself up at Irkutsk. It is a rough road working round
by the north of Lake Baikal; but you had better take that way, it is
safer than by the south. But no doubt if you are careful you might go
that way too. Then the summer after, if you can get away again, you can
give up at Tomsk. Once fairly away from here there is no fear of your
being overtaken; they never take the trouble to hunt the woods far, they
know it is of no use. Remember, as long as you don't go too far from the
road, you will light upon cottages and little farm-houses where you can
get something to eat; but if you go too far into the woods you may
starve. There will be no berries except strawberries yet, and
strawberries are not much use to keep life together when you are
travelling."

"Oh, by the by, there is one more thing I want you to get for me if
possible, and that is fish-hooks and line."

"That is difficult," Mikail said; "however, a rouble or two will go a
long way. But you must put off your start for another two or three days.
The rope and the hooks will need time to get."

It was, indeed, the fourth evening before Mikail told Godfrey that he
had got everything except the knives. "I will manage to get these in the
morning," he said, "when I go into the kitchen and see about breakfast.
If I were you, I would put on those two