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Brains skill of hand, specialization. The styles are designed by men who make that one thing their special study. The garments are made
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SCHNEIDER’S GREAT DEPARTMENT STORE,
1106 and 1108 Broadway, : : : : Augusta, Georgia.
i!
I THE COURIER
IfJ OF THE CZAR jgj
By Jules Verrje ■
CHAPTER XVI.
[O special incident marked
thi&journey on the lake.
Nadia had remained in
a profound stupor.
Sleep had only over
powered Michael Strogoff
at long intervals, and
still his thoughts were ever watching
over her.
At daybreak the raft, retarded by a
somewhat strong breeze which was
blowing against the action of the cur
rent, was still forty versts from the
mouth of the Angara. Most likely they
would not be able to reach it before 3
or 4 o’clock in the afternoon.
This was not an inconvenience; rath
er the contrary, for the fugitives would
then descend the river duriug the night,
and the darkness would favor their
arrival at Irkutsk.
At 4 o’clock iu the afternoon the
mouth of the Angara was signaled by
the old mariner between the high gran
ite rocks of the coast. One could per
ceive on the right bank the little port
of Livenitchnaia, its church, its few
houses built on the steep.
But there was a grave circumstance.
The first floating ice that had come
from the east was already forming be
tween the banks of the Angara and
hence descending toward Irkutsk.
However, their number could not as
yet be great enough to obstruct the
river nor the cold severe enough to
unite them into one mass.
The raft arrived at the little port and
stopped there for a short time. The
old mariner had decided to put iuto
port for au hour in order to make some
indispensable repairs. The trunks, hav
ing become loose, threatened to sepa
rate from one another, and it was of
great importance to rebind them more
firmly together that they might resist
the current of the Angara, which is
very rapid.
The old sailor did not, therefore, ex
pect any more fugitives at the port of
Livenitchnaia, and yet .at the moment
the raft was leaving the shore two
men, coming out of a deserted house,
ran with great haste to the bank.
Nadia, sitting at the back part of the
raft, looked at them in a listless man
ner.
A cry was about to escape her. She
seized the hand of Michael Strogoff.
who at that moment raised his head.
“What is the matter with you, Na
dia?” he asked.
“Our two fellow travelers, Michael—
that Frenchman and that Englishman
whom we met in the defiles of the Ural
mountains.”
“Yes.”
Michael Strogoff shuddered, for the
strict incognito from which he did not
jvisb to depart was In danger of being
And in reality it was not any longer
Nicholas Korpauoff whom Alcide Joli-
vet and Harry Blount were about to
see in him uow, but the true Michael
Strogoff, the courier of the czar. The
journalists had already met him twice
since their separation at the posthouse
of Ichim—the first time at the camp of
Zabedeiro. when he cut with the blow of
the knout the face of Ivan Ogareff, the
second time at Tomsk, when he was
condemned by the emir. They knew
therefore what to think of him and his
true position as courier of the czar.
Michael Strogoff quickly took up his
part.
“Nadia,” said he, “when that French
man and Englishman shall come on
board beg them to come up to me.”
They were indeed Harry Blount and
Alcide Jolivet, whom not chance, but
the force of events, had conducted to
the port of Livenitchnaia, just as they
had led Michael Strogoff.
The reader knows that after having
beeu present at the triumphal entry of
the Tartars into Tomsk they had gone
away before the savage execution
which terminated the feast. They had
no doubt But their old fellow traveler
had been put to death, and they were
quite unaware that lie had been ouiy
made blind by order cf the emir.
Then, having procured horses, they
had abandoned Tomsk that very night,
with the fixed intention of dating hence
forth their articles from Russian camps
of eastern Siberia.
Alcide Jolivet and Harry Blount set
out for Irkutsk by forced marches.
They had great hopes of outstripping
Feofar-Klian, and most certainly they
would have done so had not a third col
umn unexpectedly made its appear
ance, having come from the southern
provinces of the Yenisei. Like Michael
Strogoff, they were cut off before hav
ing even reached the Dinka. Hence
they were again compelled to go down
as far as Lake Baikal.
When they arrived at Livenitchnaia,
the port was already deserted. On any
other side it was impossible for them
to enter Irkutsk, which was invested
by the Tartar armies.
They had been there for three days,
and very much embarrassed, when the
raft arrived.
The design of the fugitives was com
municated to them. There was cer
tainly some chance of their being able
to pass during the night and penetrate
into Irkutsk. They therefore resolved
to make the attempt.
Alcide Jolivet at ouce placed himself
in communication with the old mariner
and asked passage for his companion
and himself, offering to pay the fare he
fixed, whatever it might be.
“Here one does not pay anything,”
gravely answered the old mariner.
“One risks his life; that is alh"
The two journalists emDanceu, uuu
Nadia saw them take their place in the
fore part of the raft.
Harry Blount was always the cold
Englishman who had scarcely address
ed a word to her during the whole jour
ney across the Leal mountains. Alcide
Jolivet seemed a little more grave than
i usual, aud one would acknowledge that
| his gravity was justified by that of the
j circumstances.
! Alcide Jolivet was then installed on
j the fore part of the raft, when he felt
| a hand rest on his arm. He turned
round and recognized Nadia, the sister
of him who was no longer Nicholas
Korpauoff, but Michael Strogoff, cou
rier of the czar. A cry of surprise was
about to escape him when he saw the
young girl place her finger on her lips.
“Come,” said Nadia to him.
And, assuming an air of indifference,
Alcide Jolivet, making a sign to Harry
Blount to accompany him, followed her.
But if the surprise of the journalists
was great at meeting Nadia on that
raft it was without limits when they
perceived Michael Strogoff, whom they
could not believe to be still alive. Mi
chael Strogoff had not moved at their
r approach.
i Alcide Jolivet had turned himself to
ward the young girl.
“Gentlemen, he does not see you,”
said the young girl. “The Tartars have
burned out his eyes! My poor brother
is blind!”
A deep feeling of pity was pictured
on the face of Alcide Jolivet and his
| companion.
i An instant afterward both of them,
sefited near Michael Strogoff, warmly
shook his hands and waited for him to
speak.
"Gentlemen,” said Michael Strogoff
in a low voice, “you must not know
who I am nor what I came to do In Si
beria. I beg you to respect my secret.
Do you promise me?”
“On my honor,” answered Alcide Joli
vet.
“On my faith as a gentleman,” added
Harry Blount.
“Very well, gentlemen.”
“Can we be of any use to you?” ask
ed Harry Blount. “Would you wish
us to help you to accomplish your i
task ?” |
. “I prefer to act alone,” said Michael ‘
Strogoff.
“But those scoundrels have burned |
out your sight,” said Alcide Jolivet. !
no more understand than could Nadia.
Besides, they had not spoken cf the
past up to the moment when Alcide
Jolivet thought it his duty to say to
Michael Strogoff:
“We almost owe you some excuses
for not having shaken bauds with you
before our separation at the posthouse
of Ichim.”
“No; you had a right to believe me a
coward.”
“Anyhow,” added Alcide Jolivet, “you
have splendidly whipped that villain,
and he will carry the marks of it a long
time.”
“No, not a long time,” simply answer
ed Michael Strogoff.
In half au hour after the departure
from Livenitchnaia Alcide Jolivet and
Harry Blount had heard all the details
of the cruel trials through which Mi
chael Strogoff and his companion had
successively passed. They could not
but openly admire an energy which the
devotedness of the young girl alone
had been able to equal. And of Mi
chael Strogoff they had formed the
very same opinion which had been so
well expressed by the czar at Moscow—
“In truth, he is a man!”
At 8 o’clock at night, as the aspect
of the sky had forewarned them, au ex
cessive darkness enveloped all the
country. The moon, being new, would
not rise above the horizon. From the
middle of the river the banks were visi
ble. The cliffs at not. a great height
were blended with those heavy clouds
which they displaced with difficulty. 1
At intervals a breeze would come from ,
the east aud seem to expire in that nar- j
row valley of the Angara. |
The old mariner, lying down on the
fore part of the raft near his men, oc
cupied himself altogether in turning
aside from the ice blocks, a maneuver
which he executed without making any
noise.
This drifting of the ice, after all, was
a favorable circumstance as long as it
did not oppose an insurmountable ob
stacle in the passage of the raft; for
indeed this apparatus alone on the free
waters of the river would have run the
risk of being perceived even through
the thick shade, whereas it was uow
confounded with these moving masses
of all sizes and all shapes, and the din
produced by the grating of the blocks
drowned all other suspicious noise.
There was a very keen frost. The
fugitives suffered dreadfully from it.
shaken her moral energy, sue was i hope of ever entering there,
thinking also that in case Michael Stro- j At length, at half past 1. in sp'.te of
goff should make a new effort to attain j all their united efforts, the raft struck
his end she must be there to guide him. against a thick barrier and stopped al-
But at the time that she was approach- i together. The ice which was floating
ing Irkutsk the image of her father was ! down the river cast itself upon it and
pictured more vividly in her mind. She forced it against the obstacle and held
saw him in the invested town, far from
those lie cherished, but—for she did
not doubt it—struggling against the in
vaders with all the dash of his patriot
ism. Before many hours, if heaven
should at length favor them, she would
be in his arms, reciting to him the last
words of her mother, and nothing
should again separate them.
The raft still moved on, unperceived,
amid the mass of floating ice.
Up to this time no Tartar detachment
had been signaled on the high banks
of the Angara, and this Indicated that
the raft had not as yet come on a line
with their outposts.
Meanwhile it was necessary to ma
neuver with more care in the midst of
the ice, which was fast closing.
The old mariner rose up, and the mn-
it motionless as if it had been driven
upon a reef.
At this place the Angara becomes nar
rowed to not more than half its normal
breadth; hence the accumulation of ice
blocks, which were by little aud little
piled one upon another under the action
of the doubie pressure, which was con
siderable, and of the cold, whose in
tensity was redoubling. At 500 paces
down the river again became wide, and
ice blocks, detaching themselves by lit
tle and iittle from the lower edge of that
field,continued to float down to Irkutsk;
hence it is probable that without that
narrowingof the banks the barrier would
not have been formed, and the raft could
have continued to descend the current.
But the evil was irreparable, and the
fugitives had to give up ail hope of
jilts took up again their boathooks. ! reaching the end of their journey. If
All had as much as they could do, and
the management of the raft became
Inore and more difficult, for the bed of
the river was becoming obstructed.
Michael Strogoff had moved softly to
the fore part of the raft.
Alcide Jolivet had followed him.
they had had at their disposal the tools
which the whalers usually employ to
open out canals across the Icefields, if
they had beeu able to cut this field as
far as the place where the river be
came wider, perhaps the time would
not have been wanting, but not a single
Both listened to what the old sailor saw, not a pickax, nothing with which
and his men were saying. to cut the crust, which the extreme cold
“Guard there on the right!” . had rendered as hard as granite.
“Look! The blocks of ice are thick- I What should they do?
ening on the left!” j At that moment rifle shots were heard
“Keep it off! Keep it off with your i on the right bank of the Angara. A
boathook!” ' shower of bullets was directed upon
“Before au hour we shall be stop- ] the raft. Had the unhappy men been
ped!” j perceived? Evidently, for other deto-
“If God wills it!” replied the old sail- nations resounded on the left bank.
can be
u x , ,, i not having any other shelter but some
I have Nadia, and her eyes suffice, i , . , * '
J 1 branches of the birch tree. They press
ed close to each other in order to better
support the low temperature, which
during that night had reached 10 de
grees below zero.
Michael Strogoff and Nadia, lying
down at the back part of the raft, en
dured without complaint this addition
al suffering. For a man who was reck
oning soon to attain his end Michael
Strogoff seemed singularly calm. Be
sides, in the most grave situations his
energy had never abandoned him. Al
ready he looked forward to the moment
when at last it would be permitted him
to think of his mother, of Nadia, of
himself. He only feared one last and
evil chance. It was lest the raft should
be absolutely stopped by a harrier of
thick ice before having reached Ir
kutsk. He did not think of anything
but that, being, moreover, decided if it
were necessary to attempt some su
preme act of daring.
Nadia, refreshed by some hours of re-
Half an hour later the raft, after
having ieft the little port of Livenitch
naia, was fairly in the river. It was 5
o’clock in the evening. Night was fast
coming on. It would be very dark and
very cold also, for the temperature was
already below zero.
Alcide Jolivet and Harry Blount, al
though they had promised Michael
Strogoff to keep his secret, yet did not
leave his side. They spoke in a low
voice, and the blind man, putting what
he already knew to what they now told
him, was enabled to form an exact idea
of the state of affairs.
He was certain that the Tartars were
actually investing Irkutsk and that the
three columns hatj already formed a
junction. One could not therefore doubt
that the emir and Ivan Ogareff were
before the capital.
But why that haste to arrive there
of the courier of the czar, now that the
emperor’s letter could no longer be re-,
mitted by him to the grand duke, and
he did not even know its contents? Al-
oide Jolivet and Harry Blount could
or. “Against his will nothin
done.”
“You hear them?” said Alcide Jolivet. !
“l T es,” replied Michael Strogoff, “but
God is with us.”
Meantime the situation became more j
and more serious. If the raft once j
ceased to make headway, the fugitives I
woukl not only never reach Irkutsk, i
but they would be obliged to abandon j
their floating apparatus, which, crush- ‘
ed by the ice bioeks, would not be long j
in sinking under the waters. The wil- I
low binding were already breaking, j
the fir trunks, violently separated, were !
becoming entangled under the hard
crust, and soon the unfortunate people
would have no other refuge than the
ice itself. Then, when daylight should -
come, the3 r would be perceived by the
Tartars and massacred without pity.
Michael Strogoff returned to the back
part of the raft, where Nadia was wait
ing for him. lie approached the young
girl, he took her hand and put to her
that invariable question. “Nadia, are
you ready?” to which she answered as
usual:
“I am ready.”
For some versts more the raft con
tinued to make its way through the
floating Ice. If the Angara should be
choked up with ice, it would form a
barrier, and consequently it would be
impossible to follow the current. Al
ready the passage down the river was
slower. At every instgnt there were
collisions, or time was lost by having
to make long turnings. Here they must
escape landing on the ice; there they
must take a narrow pass between it-
in fine, many anxious drawbacks.
And now only a few hours of the
pose, had recovered that physical en- night remained. If the fugitives did
ergy which misery had sometimes been | not reach Irkutsk before 5 o’clock in
able to subdue without ever bavin* the morning, they must give up all
he fugitives, caught between two fires,
! became a target for the Tartar marks-
■■ men. Some were wounded by these
balls, although iu the midst of the
I great darkness they only fell by chance.
I "Come, Nadia,” whispered Michael
j Strogoff in the ear of the young girl.
Without making any observation,
ready for everything, Nadia took tho
hand of Michael Strogoff.
“I am thinking of crossing the bar
rier,” he said to her in a low voice.
“Guide me, but let no one see us leave
the raft.”
Nadia obeyed. Michael Strogoff and
she glided quickly over the surface of
the icefield in a silence that was broken
here and there by the firing.
Nadia crept on in front of Michael
Strogoff. The balls fell around them
like a shower of hailstones and crashed
upon the ice. The surface of the field,
rugged and with sharp edges, made
their hands bleed, but still they kept
advancing.
Ten minutes afterward the lower
border of the barrier was reached.
There the waters of the Angara again
became free. A few large blocks of
ice, becoming by degrees detached from
the field and floating with the current,
descended toward the town.
Nadia understood what Michael Stro
goff wished to attempt. She saw one
of those blocks of ice that was only
held by a narrow tongue.
“Come,” said Nadia.
And both lay down on this morsel of
ice, which a slight rocking loosened
from the barrier.
The block began to make its way
down the river. The river itself be
came wider, and the route was free.
[fg [TO BE CONTINUED. J
ifob frintfng a/ all dtmm.
Sparkman Makes Denial.
Jacksonville, Fla., Dec. 24.—Con
gressman Sparkman has made a denial
of the statement made by W. K. Ze-
wadski, of Ocala, to the Tampa Tri
bune that an understanding had been
reached ty which Sparkman was to op
pose Senator Mallory for re-election,
and he (Zewadski) would become a
candidate for congress. Mr. Sparkman
says that no such understand : ng exists,
that he has never been a candidate dor
the senate and is not a candidate at
present.
Rebuilding of Jacksonville.
Jacksonville, Fla., Dec. 23—Th? in
tense cold has had no apparent effect
on the determination of the peo; i ■ to
rebuild, as 28 permits were issued last
week for permanent buildings, besides
several pel mils for additions to houses
and repairs. The total number or per
mits since the fire as shown by the
records in the office of Building Com
missioner Prioleau reaches 1,388. Of
this number 138 were for stone or
brick structures.
Tallahassee Carnival Is On.
Tallahassee, Dec. 24.—The Tallahas
see street carnival, which will last
through Christmas week, has com
menced. Hundreds of visitors from all
points within 100 miles in either di
rection are coming in on every train.
The principal streets are thronged and
the city presents a merrier aspect
than for many years past.
Rock=a=Bye My |
These are sweet words, but how much
pain and suffering they used to mean, it s
different now. Since Mother’s Friend r.as
become known expectant mothers have
been spared much of the anguish of child
birth. Mother’s Friend is a liniment to -S
applied externally. It is rubbed thoroa: .y
into the muscles of the abdomen. It gv. es
elasticity and strength, and when the fmal
great strain comes they respond qv'm J ana
easily without pain. Mother's Fr -nd is
never taken internally, internal remedies
at this time do more harm than good. 3
woman is supplied with this splendid 1n*
ment she need never fear rising or s, ' e f
breasts, morning sickness, or any - ■ y y
discomforts which usually accompany p re s
nancy.
The proprietor of a large hotel in ;
Fla., writes: “My wife had an awful time
with her first child. During her
pregnancy, Mother’s Friend was used -■
the baby was bom easily before the
arrived. It’s certainly great.”
Get Mother’s Friend at the
drug store. $1 per fcottle.
THE BRADFIELD REGULATOR
Atlanta, Ga.
Write for our free illustrated book, “ Befor- I
Is Bom.”
CO.,
Mnm:
is a* ritx.