The G.A. Henty

by G. A. Henty

  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 the men of whom Luka had been speaking. Kobylin the bandit muttered and scowled whenever the starosta came near him, and there could be little doubt that had he met him outside the prison walls he would have shown him no mercy. Koshkin on the other hand appeared to cherish no enmity.

  “I have done wrong, Mikail,” he said half an hour after he had had his flogging, “and I have been punished for it. It was not your fault; it was mine. These things will happen, you know, and there is no need for malice;” and he went about the ward smiling and rubbing his hands as usual and occasionally singing softly to himself. As Godfrey knew how submissive the Russians are under punishment he would have thought this perfectly natural had he not heard from Luka the man’s history. That was how, he thought to himself, the scoundrel smiled upon the master and mistress he had resolved to murder. “Of the two I think there is more to be feared from him than from that villain Kobylin, who has certainly been civil enough to me since I gave him that thrashing. I will keep my eye on the little fellow.”

  Of necessity the ward became quiet very soon after night set in. The men talked and smoked for a short time, but in an hour after the candle was lit the ward was generally perfectly quiet. Godfrey, working as he did indoors, was far less inclined for sleep than either the men who had been working in the forest or those who had been listlessly passing the day in enforced idleness, and he generally lay awake for a long time, either thinking of home and school-days, or in meditating over his plans for escape as soon as spring arrived, and he now determined to keep awake still longer. “They are almost all asleep by seven o’clock,” he said to himself. “If any of those fellows intend to do any harm to Mikail they will probably do it by ten or eleven, there will be no motive in putting it off longer; and indeed the ward is quieter then than it is later, for some of them when they wake light a pipe and have a smoke, and many do so early in the morning so as to have their smoke before going to work.”

  Five evenings passed without anything happening, and Godfrey began to think that he had been needlessly anxious, and that Mikail must understand the ways of his own people better than he did. The sixth evening had also passed off quietly, and when Godfrey thought that it must be nearly twelve o’clock he was about to pull his blanket up over his ear and settle himself for sleep when he suddenly caught sight of a stooping figure coming along. It was passing under the candle when he caught sight of it. He did not feel quite sure that his eyes had not deceived him, for it was but a momentary glance he caught of a dark object an inch or two above the level of the feet of the sleepers.

  Godfrey noiselessly pushed down his blanket, gathered his feet up in readiness for a spring, and grasped one of his shoes, which as usual he had placed behind the clothes-bag that served as his pillow. Several of the sleepers were snoring loudly, and intently as he listened he heard no footfall. In a few seconds, however, a dark figure arose against the wall at the foot of the bench; it stood there immovable for half a minute and then leaned over Mikail, placing one hand on the wall as if to enable him to stretch as far over as possible without touching the sleeper. Godfrey waited no longer but brought the shoe down with all his force on the man’s head, and then threw himself upon him pinning him down for a moment upon the top of Mikail. The latter woke with a shout of surprise followed by a sharp cry of pain. Godfrey clung to the man, who, as with a great effort he rose, dragged him from the bed, and the two rolled on the ground together. Mikail’s shout had awakened the whole ward and a sudden din arose. Mikail leapt from the bench and as he did so fell over the struggling figures on the ground.

  “Get hold of his hands, Mikail,” Godfrey shouted, “he has got a knife and I can’t hold him.”

  But in the dark it was some time before the starosta could make out the figures on the floor. Suddenly Godfrey felt Mikail’s hand on his throat.

  “That’s me,” he gasped. The hand was removed and a moment later he felt the struggles of his adversary cease, and there was a choking sound.

  “That is right, Mikail, but don’t kill him,” he said.

  At this moment the door at the end of the ward opened and two of the guard ran in with lanterns. They shouted orders to the convicts to keep their places on the benches.

  “This way,” Mikail called, “there has been attempted murder, I believe.”

  The guards came up with the lanterns.

  “What has happened to him?” one of them said, bending over the man who was lying insensible on the ground.

  “He is short of wind,” Mikail said, “that is all that ails him; I had to choke him off.”

  “But what is it all about?”

  “I don’t know myself,” Mikail said. “I was asleep when I felt a thump as if a cow had fallen on me, then I felt a sharp stab on the hip, two of them one after the other, then the weight was lifted suddenly off and I jumped up. As I put my feet on the ground I tumbled over Ivan here and—who is it? Hold the lantern close to his face—ah, Koshkin. What is it, Ivan, are you hurt?”

  “He ran his knife pretty deep into my leg once or twice,” Godfrey said. “I got his arms pinned down, but I could not keep him from moving his hands. If we had lain quiet he would have hurt me seriously, I expect; but we were both struggling, so he only got a chance to give me a dig now and then.”

  “But what is it all about, Ivan, for I don’t quite understand yet?” Mikail asked.

  “I told you, Mikail, that fellow would do you a mischief. You laughed at me, but I was quite sure that that smiling manner of his was all put on. I have lain awake for the last five nights to watch, and to-night I just caught sight of something crawling along at the edge of the bench. He stood up at your feet and leant over, as I thought then, and I know now, to stab you, but I flung myself on him, and you know the rest of it.”

  “Well, you have saved my life, there is no mistake about that,” and Mikail lifted and laid him on the bench. “Now,” he said to the guards, “you had better take that fellow out and put him in the guard cell, the cold air will bring him round as soon as you get him out of this room. You had better hold him tight when he does, for he is a slippery customer. When you have locked him up will one of you go round to the doctor’s? This young fellow is bleeding fast, and I fancy I have lost a good deal of blood myself.”

  As soon as the soldiers had left the ward carrying Koshkin between them Mikail called Osip and Luka. “Here,” he said, “get the lad’s things down from under his iron belt and try and stop the bleeding till the doctor comes. I feel a bit faint myself or I would ask no one else to do it.”

  In ten minutes the doctor arrived. Godfrey had three cuts about half-way between the hip and the knee.

  “They are of no consequence except for the bleeding,” the doctor said. “Has anyone got a piece of cord?”

  “There is a piece in my bag,” Mikail replied. The doctor took it and made a rough tourniquet above the wounds, then drew the edges together, put in two stitches in each, and then strapped them up. Then he attended to Mikail. “You have had a narrow escape,” he said; “the knife has struck on your hip bone and made a nasty gash, and there is another just below it. If the first wound had been two inches higher there would have been nothing to do but to bury you.”

  “Well, this is a nice business,” Mikail said, when the doctor had left. “To think of that little villain being so treacherous! You were right and I was wrong, Ivan, though how you gue
ssed he was up to mischief is more than I can imagine.”

  “Well, you know the fellow’s history, Mikail, and that he had murdered nine people he had lived among and who trusted him. What could one expect from a villain like that?”

  “Oh, I know he is a bad one,” Mikail said, “but I did not think he dare take the risk.”

  “I don’t suppose he thought there was much risk, Mikail. If I had been asleep he would have stabbed you to the heart, and when we found you dead in the morning who was to know what prisoner had done it?”

  “Well, it was a lucky thought my putting you next to me, young fellow; I meant it for your good not for my own, and now you see it has saved my life.”

  “A kind action always gets its reward, Mikail—always, sooner or later; in your case it has been sooner, you see. Now I shall go off to sleep, for I feel as drowsy as if I had been up for the last three nights.”

  CHAPTER X

  PREPARATIONS FOR FLIGHT

  The next morning Godfrey and Mikail were by the doctor’s orders carried to the hospital and placed in a comfortable and well-arranged ward. “You won’t have to be here many days,” the doctor said when he came round the ward. “I only had you brought here because the air is sweeter and better than it is in that room you were in.” An hour later the governor with a clerk came in. Mikail was first called upon for his statement, which was written down by the clerk.

  “Had you any reason for supposing that the man had any special enmity against you?” the governor asked.

  “Only because of that flogging he had for the row in the ward last week, sir.”

  “Ah, yes, he was one of those who attacked you then and was flogged; that accounts for it.”

  Then Godfrey gave his account of what had happened.

  “Did you observe anything that made you specially watchful?” the governor asked.

  “I thought perhaps one of them might try to take revenge on Mikail, sir. One or two of them were very sullen and surly, and would, I thought, do him harm if they had the chance; but I suspected this man more than the others because he seemed so unnaturally pleasant, and as I had heard him boasting about the things for which he is here, I thought he was more dangerous than those who grumbled and threatened.”

  The governor nodded. “Yes, he is a thorough-paced villain; you have done very well, young man, and I shall not forget it.”

  Five days later there was a stir in front of the hospital, and Mikail, whose bed was by the side of the window, raised himself on his elbow and looked out.

  “It is a punishment parade,” he said; “I expect they are going to flog Koshkin with the plete. No governor of a prison is allowed to do that until the circumstances of the case have been sent to the governor of the province, and the sentence receives his approval; that is no doubt what has caused the delay. All the prisoners are mustering.”

  Godfrey, who was in the next bed, managed to draw himself on to Mikail’s, and then to sit up so as to look out. The whole of the convicts of that prison, some eight hundred in number, were drawn up forming three sides of a square; in front of them, four paces apart, were a line of soldiers with fixed bayonets, while behind was another line. Then Koshkin, stripped to the waist, was brought forward and bound to a thick board having an iron leg, so that when laid down the board inclined to an angle of about thirty degrees. On this he was so strapped as to be perfectly immovable. Then a man approached with the dreaded whip and took his place on one side of the criminal. The governor then entered the square. He was attended by all the prison officials. His face was very grave and stern, and he walked along the lines, scrutinizing closely each man as he passed him. Then he took his place in the centre of the square and held up his hand.

  “This man,” he said, “has attempted to murder the starosta of his ward, and is for this sentenced to fifty lashes. Let this be a lesson to all here.”

  Then he signalled to the executioner, who brought down his lash with great force upon the bare back of the prisoner. A terrible cry broke from Koshkin. Two more blows were given, and then the executioner moved to the other side and delivered another three blows. In this way the lashes crossed each other at an angle. Godfrey could look no more, but crawled back on to his own bed. Mikail continued looking out until the punishment was over.

  “He has not bled,” he said; “he will die.”

  “How do you mean, Mikail?”

  “Well, that is how it is, Ivan. It is as the executioner likes, or as he is ordered. He can, according to the way he strikes, cut the flesh or not each stroke. If it bleeds the man seldom dies, if it doesn’t there is little chance for him. There are several ways of flogging the prisoner, and his friends generally bribe the executioner; then he strikes with all his strength the first blow that is terrible, but it seems to numb the flesh somehow, and afterwards he does not strike so hard, and the prisoner hardly feels the blows. The worst is when he hits softly at first and then harder and harder, then the man feels every blow to the end; but they are obliged to hit hard, if not they get flogged themselves. I saw a case where the executioner had been well bribed and, therefore, hit gently, and the prisoner was taken down and he was tied up in his place and got twenty lashes. Years ago they used the plete at all the prisons, now they only use it at three prisons, where the worst criminals are sent, and this is one of them.”

  A week later they were both discharged from the hospital and returned to the ward. The first thing they heard on entering it was that Koshkin had died the night before. Godfrey went back to his work in the office. He was doubtful how he should be received in the ward, but he found that, except by Kobylin and four or five others, he was welcomed quite cordially.

  “You have done us all a service,” Osip said. “There was sure to have been trouble sooner or later, and that flogging will cow these fellows for some time. This is only the second there has been since I came here—I mean, of course, at this prison. Besides, Mikail is a good fellow, and we all like him, and everyone would have been sorry if he had been killed.”

  “What is he in for? I never asked before. Of course, I see that he has the murderer’s badge on his back. Do you know how it happened? I never heard him speak of it.”

  “Yes, he told us about it one evening, that was before he became starosta. Some vodka had been smuggled in and he had more than was good for him, and that opened his lips. He had been a charcoal-burner and having had the good fortune to escape the conscription he married. She was a pretty girl, and it seems that the son of a rich proprietor had taken a fancy to her, and when the next year’s conscription came he managed by some unfair means to get Mikail’s name put down again on the list. Such things can be done, you know, by a man with influence. Mikail ran away and took to the woods. He was hunted for two or three months in vain. Then someone betrayed him, and one morning he woke up in a hut he had built for himself and saw the place was surrounded by soldiers.

  “With the officers was the man who had injured him. Mikail was mad with fury, and rushing out with a big club he had cut he stretched the fellow dead on the ground—and served him right. However, of course Mikail was taken, tried, and condemned. He had killed a noble’s son, and three weeks later was on his way to Siberia. His wife has followed him, and is living now in a village two miles away. Another six months and Mikail will have served his ten years, which is the least time a murderer can serve before he gets leave to live outside the prison. He is sure to get it then, his conduct has been always good, and no doubt this affair will count in his favour. His wife came out two years after he was sent here. She keeps herself by spinning and helping at a farm. It has been a good thing for Mikail, for it has kept him straight. If it had not been for that he would have taken to the woods long ago.”

  “I don’t call that a murder,” Godfrey said indignantly. “If I had been on the jury I would never have convicted him. He was treated illegally and had the right to resist.”

  “I don’t blame him very much myself,” Osip said. “Of course it would
have been wiser to have submitted, and then to have tried to get off serving, but I don’t suppose anyone would have listened to him. If it hadn’t been a noble he killed I have no doubt he would have got off.”

  “But you are noble yourself, Osip.”

  “Yes, but that does not give me any marked advantage at present. Of course it will make a difference when I get out. My friends will send me money, and I shall live at Tobolsk and marry some wealthy gold-miner’s daughter, and be in the best society. Oh, yes, it is an advantage being noble born, even in Siberia.”

  Godfrey was quite touched with the joy that Luka manifested when, on his return from work, he found him in the ward. “Ah, my master,” he exclaimed, with tears in his eyes, “why did you not tell me that you were watching? I would have kept awake all night and would have thrown myself on that dog; it would have made no matter if he had killed me. It would not have hurt me so much as it did to see you bleeding.”

  “You must not call me master,” Godfrey said, holding out his hand, which the Tartar seized and pressed to his forehead. “You and I are friends, there are no masters here.”

  Godfrey learnt that every effort had been made by the authorities to discover how Koshkin had obtained the knife, but without success. He must have bribed one of the guards to fetch it in for him, but there was no tracing which had been concerned in the matter. All the prisoners had been searched and their bags examined, but no other weapons had been discovered. Godfrey did not hear a single word of pity for Koshkin, or of regret at his death. Indifference for others was one of the leading characteristics of the prisoners. Although living so long together they seldom appeared to form a friendship of any kind; each man lived for and thought only of his own lot. Godfrey observed that it was very seldom that a prisoner shared any dainty he had purchased with another, and it was only when three or four had clubbed together to get in a ham, a young sucking pig, or some vodka that they were seen to partake of it together.