g, turned sideways
by the current, had just run upon the end of one of these banks, where
it stuck fast.

"Now's the time," shouted Feodor, springing forward; "not a moment to be
lost. A rope and a pole--quick!"

He was obeyed at once; for these rough fellows seemed to feel
instinctively that _he_ was the man for the occasion, and had a right to
take the command. He twisted one end of the rope around his left arm,
and running a little way up the bank, threw the other end to those who
followed him, grasped the pole in his right hand, and bounded like a
deer on to the nearest ice-block, the in-drawn breath of the excited
lookers-on sounding like a hiss amid the dead silence.

Had any artist been there to paint the scene, it would have made a very
striking picture. The sky had darkened suddenly, and a cheerless gloom
brooded over the sullen river with its drifting ice, and the bare sandy
ridges on either side, and the helpless figure stranded upon the islet,
and the daring man winning his perilous way over the treacherous
surface, and the group of anxious watchers on the shore, while the wind
moaned drearily through the leafless trees, like a warning of coming
evil.

But Feodor was not the man to be frightened by any such fancies, and on
he went in gallant style, springing lightly from block to block, while
the ice creaked and groaned beneath his weight, and the water splashed
up all around him. Twice a cry of dismay burst from his comrades, as the
ice upon which he leaped gave way under his feet. Once his way was
barred by a gap too broad to be cleared; but with his pole he drew a
passing fragment within reach, stepped upon it, and went forward again.

But now came a new peril. The stranded mass of ice for which he was
aiming, thus stuck fast in the midst of the stream, formed a kind of
breakwater, behind which the smaller lumps began to accumulate; and
several of these, driven by the current beneath the great sheet, forced
one end of it up, while the other was held fast by the sand-bank. Such a
strain was too great to be long endured. Just as Feodor was almost
within reach of the helpless man, the ice-floe upon which the latter lay
split in two with a deafening crash, and the pent-up masses behind, all
breaking loose at once, came down upon Feodor like an avalanche.

"God help him, he's lost!" muttered an old peasant, clasping his hands.

But Feodor was not to be caught so easily. Quick as lightning he planted
th