Pri
nsoners and Captives
By H. S.
CHAPTER XXV.
Matthew Murk Easton" arrived in St
Petersburg by train from Libau, and took
- a drosky to the Hotel de France, for
which he paid seventy copecks. His pass-
Iort was in perfect order, although
smeared most lamentably by the clerk of
the Russian consulate who vised it in
London.
After breakfast he wandered forth,
guidebook in hand, having refused the
services of a polyglot individual who pro
fessed to be the brother-in-law of the hall
porter. The landlord himself directed
Easton to the Newski Prospect, which,
however, was not considered interesting
until the afternoon. Nevertheless, he
went that way. and finally found himself
on the English quay. He crossed the
Neva, still in the same tourist gait, and
lost himself among the smaller commercial
streets of the Vasili Ostroff. Presently
by the merest acdident he found himself
opposite a small warehouse bearing the
name L. Ogroff" in painted letters above
the blind windows of what had once
been a shop. He pushed open the curtain
ed door and, addressing himself to a
pleasant looking girl who was seated at
a counter adding up the columns of a
ledger, he mentioned the name "Loris
Ogroff." . i
"Yes," answered the girl, In perfect
English, "he is in. Who are you?"
"Matthew Mark Easton."
"Ah! Come in."
She led the way into an Inner" room
which was lined with shelves containing
long wooden boxes like miniature coffins.
There were upon the table some rolls of
common cloth.
"Mr. Ogroff is apparently a tailor,"
hazarded Easton In a conversational
way.
"Yes," she answered, with a short
laugh, "a very cheap one."
"He is upstairs in the cutting-out
room," she continued, with a twinkle in
her childish eyes. "I shall tell him."
Easton stood looking at the curtained
door after she had closed it. Then he
picked up a piece of rough cloth and ex
amined its texture critically.
"I am half inclined," he reflected
aloud, "to become a nihilist. There are
alleviations even in the lot of a tailor's
assistant of the establishment Ogroff."
In a few moments the door opened
again, and a stout man entered with a
bow. He shook hands without speaking,
and'pointed to a chair.
We last saw this man in Easton's
rooms in London. His name was not
mentioned then, because there was not
much in a name for him. It was not
Ogroff then. He was not minutely de
scribed, because a written description is
not always of great value. ' For instanef ,
he was in London a dark, grizzled man
with a beard ; in his shop in the Vasili
Ostroff, St. Petersburg, he was a fair,
hairless man.
"Well?" he said, asthmatically, nt
length.
"Not a word," replied Easton; "and
you?"
The man shrugged his heavy shoulders.
"Not a word. I have written to you
all that I heard. I wrote on the fifth of
May; have you destroyed the letter?"
"Yes burned it."
"Well 1" ejaculated the Russian, mis
using the word. "I heard," he continued
"never mind how that they all got
away, In good health, at the proper time
that is, In the early summer of the
year before last. They were followed,
but they destroyed all the horses and
boats as they went, and the pursuit was
necessarily given up."
"Since that," inquired Easton ; "not
a word?"
"Not a word."
"There has been no semi-official ac
count of the matter in the newspapers?"
"No; It has been hushed up. The of
ficial report is that certain exiles and
prisoners escaped; that they were pur
sued by Cossacks, and that the chase
was only given up when their death by
starvation was a moral certainty."
"And," said Easton, "are they struck
out of the list?"
"Yes ; they are struck out."
"I am going to look for them," an
nounced Easton, after a pause.
The Russian raised his flaxen eye
brows. "Ah ! I understood that you were con
demned by the doctors."
"No, not condemned ; thpy merely said,
If you go, it will kill you.' "
"And still," said the Russian, calmly,
"you go."
"Some one must. You cannot you are
too fat. I am going by land," continued
the American. "I leave Petersburg to
morrow morning."
Ogroff rose from his chair.
' "You must go now," he said. "You
have been here long enough ; we are
watched, you know. Here in Petersburg
we all watch each other."
The Russian held ojit a fat white hand.
"Good-by, you brave American," he
aid.
"U'by I" returned Easton, with a laugh.
CHAPTER XXVI.
"Well, at all events, we have tried It !"
These words were spoken by the mere
remnant of a man to a solitary compan
ion while both looked out peered through
the twilight on death. lie who spoke
crouched in a singular way on the hard
snow, supporting himself on one fur-clad
arm. He could not stand, for he had
but one leg. The other had been cut off
Just above the knee a recent amputation,
rudely tied with rope, was stained a deep,
suggestive color. Ills face was a horrid
ight to look upon, for her and there
In the pasty yellow flesh wt deep In
MERRIMAN
dentations of half-honied sores, the re
sult of frost bite. One eye was quite
closed by a swelling which deformed the
features and drew them all up. lie spoke
in a mumbling way, ns if his tongue were
swollen or diseased, and the language was
most dramatic of all tongues Russian.
1 1 is companion, a short, thick-set man,
stood beside him ; but he stood weakly,
and the terribly sunken lines of his cheeks
told a story only slightly less horrible
than that depicted by the face and form
of the cripple. Roth faces alike bore
that strange dry look which tells unerr
ingly of starvation.
Within a few yards of the two men,
at their backs, stood a rude, ill-shapen
hut, built clumsily and ignorantly of snow.
Its low doorway faced the north, and
amid the gloom of its interior there were
discernible a number of heaps, apparently
formed of old and tattered fur clothing.
These were dead men ; the women of
Sergius Pavloski's party had not lived to
see the Arctic Ocean.
The man who stood gave a short heart
rending laugh as he looked out over the
frozen sea.
"Yes," he said, '"we have tried It."
There was a pause, and then the crip
ple Sergius Pavloski spoke again :
"Of course," he said, almost unintel
ligibly, "we have failed; but still our
failure may teach others, and we have
kept it secret. Those who want to know
will never know. They will always be
in uncertainty as to whether we have
escaped and are living hidden in America,
in Europe, perhaps in Russia. We Bhall
be more terrible, doctor, dead than alive."
I hope so."
"I, at all events, shall be, for you say
that I could not live a week in a warm
climate. This leg of mine is less painful
to-day; perhaps it is healing."
"No, Pavloski ; I have told you a doz
en times it is not healed, It Is only frozen.
It can never heal. The moment it thaws
you will die."
A sickly smile passed across his un
sightly features, and there was silence1
for a time the deathly expectant silence
of the far North. At length Pavloski
raised his mittened hand and extended i:
outward like the needle of a compass.
I wonder," he mumbled, "if Tyars is
out there." ,
"I wonder," said the doctor, "why you
intrusted this to an Englishman."
"If I had the whole world to choose
from, I should not have selected another
man," said Pavloski; "but there was no
choice in the matter."
"I suppose," said the doctor, with an
ill-concealed sneer, "that he has turned
beck."
"I will swear by St. Taul that he has
not done that !"
"Then where is he?"
"Dead!" was the answer. "If Claud
Tyars had been alive, he would have
come. He is not here, therefore ' he is
dead ! Ough !"
He stopped and fell back fainting with
pain. In his excitement he had moved,
and allowed some of his weight, to rest
upon the raw stump of his leg. In a sec
ond the doctor was kneeling on the snow
beside him, raising his head, touching his
lips with snow. It was a poor restora
tive, but there was nothing else at hand.
One cannot offer to a dying man even the
tenderest piece of an old sealskin mitten.
Without waiting for consciousness to
return, he attempted to lift the cripple,
intending to carry him within the little
snow hut, but the movement brought back
Pavloski s failing senses, and he shook
his head in token that he -wished to be
left where he lay.
"No," he said, after gasping twice for
breath; "I would rather die out here."
The doctor's bare hand crept within the
tattered sleeve toward the pulse. He said
nothing. There was nothing to say.
I do not want, continued Pavloski
brokenly, "to see their faces. I brought
them here. It Is my fault. I suppose
the good Ood will know how to revenue
all this. If they the Romanoffs the
Czar had twenty lives, and we could
take them all we might pay the debt ;
but they have only one life to taka ;
that would be too short a punishment.
(rod wi,ll know how to do it will He not,
doctor?"
"Yes," said the sweet, deep voice of
the doctor, "God will know how to do
it."
'Pray," said the dying man, "pray to
Him to do it well!"
Then his head fell back and he
breathed regularly and softly. But this
was not the end. Presently the blackened
ips began to move, and he spoke In quite
a different voice so different as to startle
his listener. It was soft and even, as if
recounting a dream fiot long dispelled.
"It is not yet a year ago," he said.
"There were seven of us four Russians,
two Englishmen, and an American. Four
Russians, two Englishmen and an Ameri
can what a strong combination ! The
Russians to go into action on land, the
Englishmen on the sea, and the sharp-
witted American to watch and plot and
scheme. I remember the last time we met
was at Easton's house. Two of us are
dead, and I am nearly dead. Tyars and
Grace where can they be? They are
out there, doctor, in front of us to the
north. I I shall go and meet them."
The lips closed with a sudden snap, and
the doctor leaned eagerly forward. Ser
gius Pavloski was dead. The survivor
rose to his feet. It had begun to snow
gently and in large flakes a snow that
would cover the ground to the depth of
twelve Inches In half that number of
hours. As It fell It gradually covered the
dead man, even to his face and eyes,
which were already cold.
Presently the doctor moved a little, ud,
turning slowly rotnd. scanned the near
horizon. He could not see the pack Ice
now, for the snoV was blowing lu from
the north, wreallihK and curling as it
came. .
Then this lone n.in moved toward tho
snow hut, and etK'ivd it on his hands
and knees. He t"k uo notice of the
dead one soon ges accustomed to them
but fumbled alioit among tho baggage
piled up In one coner.
In a dull, Btupll way he realized tho
responsibilities of lis position. Ho drag
ged two of the sleiljcsout of the hut, and
with a hatchet broke them up. Then ho
took the two strongest pieces, of each
the cross-bars and bound them securely
together, thus fonnifg n rough pole. This
he erected on a little mound where the
snow was thin, huilling it up with such
debris as he could Iny hands upon.. It
stood up gauntly, almost the only object
within sight that wai not white. It was
a mere pole, the thickness of a man's
wrist, and yet it wa probably visible ten
miles off against in gleaming surround
ings. "It would be gooc." he mumbled, "to
be warm once more just once."
And he piled up he wood in a little
heap. He crawled into the hut and pres
ently returned bearitg a good sized tin
bottle labeled "Spiritws." He poured the
contents over the woodand struck a match.
In a moment the bite flames leaped up
and the wood cracklec. He crouched down
to the leeward side, so close that his
clothes were singed and gave forth a
sharp, acrid smell. He withdrew his
mittens and held his bare, scarred hands
right into the flames.
"Ah !" he murmupd In a gurgling
voice, "that is good !"
But it did not lait long. The wood
was light and very dry, and in five min
utes there was nothing left but a few
smoldering ashes.
The doctor rose to his feet and looked
long and steadily out to the north over
the broken ice. Ilia eyes lingered over
each white mound and hillock not loving
ly, for it was horribly dismal, almost too
dismal to be part of this world at all.
Strange to say, liis eyes finished their
Inspection by looking up to heaven. ' The
great snow-clouds were rolling south,
bearing in their huge, rounded bosoms the
white pail to cover a continent for many
months to come. But this man seemed
to be looking beyond the elonds, seeking
to penetrate the dim ether. He was not
looking at the sky, but into heaven. At
last he gave a contemptuous little shrug
of the shoulders, full of a terrible mean
ing. The next moment he sought for
something in the inner pocket of his fur
tunic. There was a gleam of dull, rusted
metal, and he raised his hand toward his
open mouth. At the same instant a sharp
report broke upon that echoless silence,
and a little puff of white smoke was borne
southward on the breeze.
(To be continued.)
EARTHQUAKES IN CARIBBEES.
Phenomena Always A (tended by
Dread Bordering on Terror.
To us the lands and countries about
the Caribbean Sea are of the greatest
interest unci importance. Our people
will be' locating there with more and
Increasing frequency,. and nil the while
the ties of international co-operation
will become stronger, says Francis C.
Nicholas In the Review of Reviews.
That eruptive and seismic disasters
have afflicted places In those regions
will uot deter us very much, for one
has abundant faith that it Is not going
to happen to him, and a good many of
our people are locating directly In
range of the volcanoes, happy and pros
pering along with the natives.
The region Is not very far away. A
few days on the steamer and one Is lu
the tropics. That bit of yellow seaweed
picked up at the shore last summer be
cause It was different from the others
was probably brought by the gulf
stream from the Curibbean regions and
carried to our shores by a southerly
wind. Surely It is uot a far-away coun
try that we are considering, and It Is
very beautiful sunshine and flowers,
green savnunas and towering moun
tains, torrential rivers, clear, splashing
brooks and deep blue sens.
Why should one think of earth
quakes? My own experiences with them
have happily been free from scenes of
death ; yet the coming of an earthquake
Is so sudden, so wildly terrible, that the
stoutest hearts must quail. Even wild
animals shrink with fear, and one is
always filled with dread bordering on
terror. It is all so sudden. A sense
of some unknown fear pervades all na
ture, as if the spirit of the world had
caught its breath and held all life an
Instant in suspense, while sounds seem
to beset one's nerves rather than to
assault the ears. Then comes a reel
ing, sickening, staggering motion, and
fear, and human crying out, and then
quivering silence for the space of a
breath, followed perhaps by crushing
destruction, or, it may be, by a sound
ilke a great sighing and the earth set
tles back, that the pulsations of na
ture .may begin again in harmony. Then
excited people'' find their voices, be
wildered faces gleam with Intelligence
and every one Is talking, comparing ex
periences, wondering what it was,
where It had come from and how it
had gone away. Such have been my
experiences with earthquakes in the
Caribbean regions, i
Short.
"I hear some scientists are going to
try to make the north pole with an air
ship. Do they Intend to stay long?"
"Oh, no. They're only going to make
a flying trip." Detroit Free Press,
msm
-,-. raf
Clod Manner, l.eveler aud Drag.
This clod masher, leveler and drag
can also be used for mashing down
cornstalks and weeds. Cut off a log
about twelve Inches In diameter that
will split straight through the middle
nicely, take off the bark from both
pieces, that will leave one flat side and
one rounding side to each piece; get
some old half-Inch rod Irons, six pieces
about fifteen Inches long, have taps on
one end and hook nlwut two Indies
long, bent on the other end; bore two
auger holes In each piece a foot from
each end; put the hooks with taps
through holes. (Jet two pieces of old
log chains, with three links eiihr which
will fasten the two pieces of timber to
gether. Bore two more holes in one of
the pieces about two feet from each
end, and take one long truce chain and
fasten to doubletree. Letter A shows
shape of the rods. If you want to
make It heavier, drop a pole on the
chains between the logs. This will
make ns fine a drag, clod crusher, land
leveler, stalk and weed knocker us you
would wish to use.
Cheap Fuel Alcohol.
Denaturlzed alcohol will probably be
come another great product of the
southern states. It Is claimed that cot
tonseed oil machinery Is perfectly
adapted to making industrial alcohol
from the potato. If this Is successfully
proven, the many cottonseed oil mills
of the south, which are Idle each sum
mer season for lack of material, will be
able to operate all the time and keep
their employes together. Furthermore,
being already equipped with the ma
chinery, they will, no doubt, be able to
manufacture the alcohol very cheaply.
Farmers would also be benefited by the
Immense demand for potatoes that
would result. In Cuba alcohol Is pro
duced and sold from twelve to fifteen
cents, a gallon, and It Is said to make
an excellent fuel for running engines.
It produces no soot or disagreeable
odors. When the law recently passed
by congress to denaturize alcohol in
the United States becomes operative it
is expected greatly to increase the use
of the article both for fuel and other
purposes.
' The Way to Make Hens Moult.
One of the achievements of modern
poultry keeping Is that of forcing a hen
to doff her old coat, and grow a new
one before the time when she would
do no naturally. Many hens shed their
feathers so late In the season, natural
ly, that cold weather overtakes them
before they get new suits, consequently
they seldom begin laying before spring.
If the moult can be hastened so that
a new coat of feathers is grown and
the laying can be started before cold
weather, the prospect Is good for a
supply of eggs during fall and -winter.
The result Is usually accomplished
by cutting off all meat and mash foods,
putting the hens on short rations of
grain for a week or so to stop the lay
ing, then allow more liberty and feed a
full ration high in protein. This loosens
the old feathers, which drop off quickly
and starts a rapid growth of the new.
A liberal allowance of beef scrap is
essential, and linseed meal Is an advan
tage. Sunflower seeds are also good
during the moult
Dodder Alfalfa's Enemy.
Thw worst enemy to alfalfa Is dod
der, a yellow twining parasite that
lives on alfalfa and clover and rapidly
destroys them. The seeds are small and
yellow and most of the alfalfa seeds
from the West are Infested with dod
der. The New York station says that
the dodder seeds can be removed by
sifting the seed through a sieve having
twenty meshes to the Inch. Careful
seedsmen will sift the seeds, but farm
ers should be on their guard against
common seeds that may b on to
market
OOOD FIEI.0 CONTRIVANCE.
Mb
Diiiiui-i'oiiM Corn l'et.
Tho cornstalk borer 1ms Infested va
rious parts of tho county for many
years, but litis not done great unniuga
In most parts of the corn belt. It has
begun to appear In Iowu and Kunsas In
the last two or three years.
It Is a large, white, brown-spotted
caterpillar which bores Into a stalk of
young corn. When fully grown It bur
rows down Into the tup-root, and In
the spring transforms to a pupu, from
which the adult soon emerges and lays
Its eggs on the young corn near the ax
ils. The young larvae hatching from them
bore Into the stalk and upward through
the pith. When fully grown they bore
outwards to the surface, making a hole,
from which the moth escapes und trans
forms to pupa lit the burrow. This In
sect Is two-brooded, the second brood
feeding on the old stalks, generally be
tween the second Joint and the ground,
anil becoming full grown about harvest
time, when they go Into winter quar
ters. When corn was seriously . Infested
Inst year and the stalks left standing
a second Infestation may be expected
this year unless the fanner has raked
and burned, a method which we have
always suggested when the cornstalks
were known to harbor any kind of In
sect iests. Corn Is too good to be with
out Is full supply of enemies, which at
tack it from the very time It Is planted
In the ground until It Is In the full
ear.
Value of Dairy Products.
There were 12,147,304,550 pounds of
milk and 588,18(1,471 pounds of cream
used in 1904 In the manufacture of
551,278,141 pounds of butter, 313,(585,
290 pounds of cheese and 303,485,182
pounds of condensed milk. These fig
ures are part of the census of mnnufne
tures for 1!M)5. The total cost of the
materials used In the Industry whs
$142,1)20,277, while the value of the pro
ducts was $1(18,182,780, an Increase o
the former of 31.3 per cent, and of tint
latter of 2S.0 per cent. The number
of establishments dropped from 0,242
to 8,92(1, while the capital Increased 30
per cent to $47,255,55(1. There were
3,507 salaried officials and clerks and
17,557 engaged In the manufacture of
these articles. These received salaries
and wages amounting to $0,789,03(5.
Arranging Large Kettle.
This Illustration gives a plan to set
up a kettle In butchering rime which Is
much better than the old way with
posts and pole. Take one and one-half-
HOW TO SET THE KETTLE.
inch old wagon tire, to the blacksmith
shop and get a ring made the size of
your kettle, with three legs welded to
It, and you can move your kettle anj
place where wanted, and nothing Is Ip
your way to go around It
Tape Worm In Tnrkeys.
The presence of the tapeworm may
be recognized through the Indolent,
drowsy spirits of turkeys Infested by
it; a careful examination of roldlngs
will rveal its presence, as those In
fested will pass small portions of the
worm. Powdered male fern Is an ef
fective remedy, and may be adminis
tered In doses of from thirty grains
to one dram of the powder; or of the
liquid extract, fifteen to thirty drops.
This should be administered morning
and evening before feeding; the mini
mum dose to the younger, Increasing
the dose as they grow older. Oil of
turpentine Is an excellent remedy
against worms of all kinds which in
habit the digestive organs of poultry.
A common remedy for the removal of
worms from fowls Is one drop of kero
sene oil night and morning. This
should not be administered to the very
young, but may be used with impuni
ty after they are a few weeks old.
Silage for Beef Animal.
The Virginia Experiment Station has
Just Issued a bulletin on feeding silage
to beef animals. It concludes that silage
after all will enable the feeders to
maintain their animals at a lower cost
and to secure greater gains than they
have heretofore obtained ; that animals
to be fed for Immediate slaughter can
safely receive silage as the sole rough
ness. Animals so fed will kill out a
high per cent of dressed meat, will help
ship well, and will show a superior
finish to animals fed on dry, coam
roughness.