Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Previous Page
–
Next Page
Full Title
The Boy Exiles of Siberia; or, The Watch-Dog of Russia / by T. C. Harbaugh.
Author
Harbaugh, T. C. (Thomas Chalmers), 1849-1924.
Date Added
9 January 2014
Format
Journal
Language
English
Publish Date
1899-09-24
Publisher
New York : M. J. Ivers & Co.
Series
Beadle's Boys Library of Sport, Story, and Adventure > v. III, no. 38
Source
Dime Novel and Popular Literature
Alternate Title
Beadle's Boys Library of Sport, Story, and Adventure, v. III, no. 38, September 24, 1899. Watch-Dog of Russia.
Topic
Dime novels > Specimens. Siberia (Russia) > Fiction.
About
More Details Permanent Link
Disclaimers
Disclaimer of Liability Disclaimer of Endorsement
OCR
AO bee
~ \passed beyond ear-shot.
by
The Boy Exiles of Siberia.
Se a RBA GS
7
ZL
At the same momert he happened to look up
and noted the change which came to the police-
man’s face. The dull eyes fairly giittered as
they sent down to the boy their acknowledg-
ment of his bribe. .
Potemkin felt the vise-like grasp of his con-
ductor relax, as his other hand closed on the
coin, and a minute later he was free, _
The boy could hardly contain his joy, and,
watching his opportunity, he slipped toward
the mob, whose ranks iminediately opened to
receive him.
“Money opens hands as well as locks,” ex-
claimed Sergius, as he was helped on by tho
people, who were overjoyed at his escape,
though if many had known his true character,
they would have arrested him themselves ani
escorted him with force to the Governor.
“ Get out of town, my little one!” was the ad-
vice Sergius heard from every side.
“That I will do, never fear,” he would reply,
He had reached the edge of the mob, whose
numbers had begun to diminish, as the Govern-
or’s palace was near at hand, when there fell
upon his ears a voice which had a startling
sound:
‘Ho, there! I want the boy—the little one—
arrested in the square,” said this voice, and
then it continued, as the motley mob recog-
nized the speaker: ‘‘ Stand back, Siberian mud-
balls! Iam not Kafan, the Kiachta merchant,
now. I am Colonel Golitzin, of the czar’s
Secret Corps!”
Sergius did not need the last sentence—pom-
pously spoken—to tell him the identity of the
man who was clad in a Russian uniform, some-
what soiled and dirty.
“My evil genius! The watch-dog of my
foes!” fell from his lips, as he slunk away with-
out catching Leo’s eye. . Lt
The Russian spy’s voice had halted both
‘crowd and detachment of police. “
“The boy!” demanded Leo, furiously. I
must have him!”
The policemen stared into each other’s faces,
Lut before the most composed could speak, Leo
threw himself among them, and threatened
every one with the knout if tha boy prisoner
was not instantly given up.
Sergius tarried no longer, but made off at o
gait which he thought would excite no suspi-
cion. He heard Leo, almost beside himself
with rage, quarreling with the police until he
“T hope you will face the thick-headed mou-
jiks till dawn,” he said smiling. ‘The longer
you quarrel with them, Leo, the brighter grow
my prospects of China,”
Bergius had scarcely ceased when a figure
darted from the shadow of a hut and a hand
closed on his wrist,
“Sissi!” exclaimed Potemkin.
‘“Yes, brother.”
“Wo are all safo if Volga—”
“She is not far away. Swifter than the
limbs of the Baikal deer must our limbs be to-
night, and the fox must lend us all his cun-
ning,” .
Sissi the young Cossack whispered his last
words in Sergius’s car as the two flew to tho |
rendezvous together,
All at once the heavy boom of a cannon from
tho walls of the fortress fell upon their ears.
Potemkin gasped and sbuddered.
“We will bo hunted,” he said, stealing a
glance at Sissi, whose lips wero firmly set.
“Cortainly. The cannon will go off again,
It will tell the people in Irkutsk that escaping
exiles aro in the city. Hark! there it goes
again, brother!”
The second report had. not ceased to echo
among the nearest mountain gorges when
Volga sprung from the hut and greeted Sissi
and her brother.
Almost at tho same moment Ivan came up?
The joy of the exiles at being united again
can not be described.
They stood in the shadow of impending
gloom,
Behind them was Leo Golitzin with tho far-
reaching authority of Russia at his back, ahead
the deadly passes of trackless mountains and—
the Chinese frontier—the goal toward which
for days they had been struggling.
“‘ Let us start again for China,” suddenly ex-
claimed Ivan, seizing Volga’s hand. ‘'To'stand
here is to court death in the mines of Timsk.”
These words were enough, and a minute after-
ward the four fugitives resumed that perilous
journey whose coming adventures were destined
to be more exciting than the ones through
which they had passed,
Guided by Sissi, they struck at once into
the mountains, and before long the lights of
Irkutsk vanished from their backward glances.
“Ah! the river!” suddenly cried Potemkin
as a strange and horrible roar fell upon his
ears.
Volga turned pale.
They had just emerged from a gulch, a little
to the east of the city, and stood on the bank of
the Angara whoss ice was cracking and groan-
ing in every direction, /
Vhile they looked across the stream the
golden disk of the moon appeared over the rim
of a cloud and showed tho exiles a sight that al-
most chilled their blood. : :
far as their eyes could reach they saw
nothing but the heaving ice, lifted constantly
by the mad waves that rushed underneath.
ere and there dark objects ran hither and
thither.
“Tho wolves are flying for their lives, but we
must cross the river!” said Sissi. .
b N oe a soul in the gallant little company drew
ac
‘* Forward!” shouted Potemkin. .
“Forward it is!” responded Ivan Pouschin,
and the next moment all four were on tho
treacherous ice with their faces turned resolute:
ly toward the opposite shore.
Bleak as it looked, it seemed to them tho land
of promise,
CHAPTER XIL
THE RIVER AND THE PATROL,
Tue <Angara, which rises in Lake Baikal,
thirty miles south-cast of Irkutsk, is one of- tho
principal rivers of Siberia, Although it is one
of the tributaries of the Yenesci, it is a thousand
miles Jong, and, before Irkutsk. presents an im
TSR ig ee TL ty
1