it in the dark,
piling three small stones one on the top of the other by the roadside at
the point nearest to it. When work was over, he managed to fall in with
Luka at the rear of the line. A Cossack marched alongside of him.

"Five roubles," Godfrey whispered, "if you will let us drop behind."

Five roubles was a large sum to the soldier. The life of the guards was
really harder than that of the prisoners, except that they did no work,
for they had to mount guard at night when the convicts slept, and their
rations were much more scanty than those given to the working convicts,
and they were accustomed to eke out their scanty pay by taking small
bribes for winking at various infractions of the prison rules. The
Cossack at once held out his hand. Godfrey slipped five rouble notes
into it. They kept on till they reached a wood, where beneath the shadow
of the trees it was already perfectly dark.

The Cossack had stepped forward two or three paces and was walking by
the next couple.

"Now, Luka," Godfrey said, and the two sprang off the path among the
trees. They waited two or three minutes, then returned to the road and
hurried back to the mine. They had been the last party to start for the
prison, and the place was quite deserted. It took them fully half an
hour to find the tools. The rings round their ankles were sufficiently
loose to enable the pick to be inserted between them and the leg;
thrusting it in as far as it would go under the rivet, it was
comparatively easy work to break off the head with the hammer. In ten
minutes both were free. Leaving the chains and tools behind them, they
made their way out of the cutting and struck across the country, and in
an hour entered the forest. It was too dark here to permit them to
proceed farther; they lay down and slept until day began to break, and
then continued their way up the rising ground until, after four hours'
walking, they were well among the mountains. They found an open space by
the side of a rivulet where the wild strawberries grew thickly, and here
they sat down and enjoyed a hearty meal of bread and strawberries.

"Now we have got to keep along on this side of that range of mountains
in front of us till we get to Lake Baikal," Godfrey said. "We will push
on for a day or two, and then we must find some cottages, and get rid of
these clothes. What we want above all things, Luka, are guns."

"Yes, or bows and arrows," Luka said.

"It would be as difficul