A heavy wind was rising. The lanternlights flickered unsteadily under its gusts, and the roar of the sea as it beat on the shore sounded like the raging of an awakened wild beast.
“Don’t you hear it roar?” said Burán, addressing Vasíli. “Look at it,” he continued, “ ‘Water all around us, and trouble ahead.’9 You will have to cross the water; and think of the distance before you come to the crossing! … a desert! … woods and military outposts! … I have a foreboding that this at tempt will not end well;—the sea gives us warning. I fear that I shall not escape from Saghálin; indeed, I do! Twice already have I escaped. The first time, I was caught in Blagovéstchinsk, and the second time in Russia … and I was brought here again. It must be my fate to die on this island.”
“All may turn out well,” replied Vasíli, encouragingly.
“You are a young man, and I am worn out. How angrily and mournfully the sea roars!”
The convicts who had occupied barrack No. 7 were removed, and the newly arrived party, temporarily guarded, was installed in their place.
Accustomed to strong bolts and to the confinement of prison-life, they would have rambled over the island like sheep let loose from their enclosures, had they not been thus guarded at first. The old convicts, who had already been living there for some time, were not locked up; for, becoming gradually familiar with the conditions of their exile, they had reached the conclusion that an attempt to escape is a dangerous undertaking, and usually means certain death to those who attempt it; for only the most resolute and determined characters, after long and careful preparations, try this experiment—and such as they might be shut in by ten locks and yet would try to escape either from prison or from out-of-door labor.
“Now, Burán, you must advise us,” said Vasíli to him, on the third day after their arrival. “You are our leader, and you will have to go ahead; so give us our orders. I suppose we ought to be getting ready.”
“What can I advise!” replied the old man, reluctantly. “It is not an easy undertaking, and I am growing old. Well,” after a pause, “about three days hence, the sentries will be withdrawn, and we shall be sent out to work. Besides, we are free to come and go at any time; only, one is not allowed to carry any bag. That is all there is to it.”
“Do advise us, Burán, my good fellow; you know what is best.”
Burán looked gloomy and careworn. He rarely spoke to anyone, but muttered incessantly to himself. It seemed as if this old vagrant, who for the third time had been brought back to the same place, was now losing his energy.
However, Vasíli had in the meantime succeeded in securing ten more able-bodied men, and was teasing Burán, in the hope of rousing him and of awakening his ardor. In this he sometimes succeeded, but eventually the old man always reverted to the difficulties of the road and bad omens. “I shall never escape from this island,” he said, repeatedly, a sentence which expressed the depression of the unsuccessful vagrant. Nevertheless, in his brighter moods, the recollection of former attempts cheered him, and in the evening, when lying in his bunk beside Vasíli, he would talk to him about the island and the roads that they intended to follow.
Fort Doué lies on the western side of the island, facing the Asiatic shore. The Tartar Straits at this place are about three hundred versts in width; to attempt to cross in an open boat would be out of the question, and the vagrants naturally follow either this or the opposite shore of the island.
“If you are anxious to die, you can go anywhere you like,” Burán was in the habit of saying; “the island is large, a wilderness and a forest. Even the native Ghiláks, who are well used to it, find few places where they can settle. If you go east, you run the risk of losing your way among the rocks, or of being pecked to death by hungry birds, or, if you live, you will probably go back of your own accord, when winter comes. If you go south, you will reach the end of the island and come to the ocean, which can only be crossed in a ship. There is but one road for us to follow, and that is to the north, skirting the shore for the entire distance. The sea will be our guide. After travelling some three hundred versts, we shall come to narrow straits, and it is there that we must cross in boats to the Amúr shore. Only, let me tell you, my boy,” here Burán fell into his usual doleful strain, “we shall have trouble in passing the military outposts. The first one is called Várki, the second Pánghi, and the last one Póghib,10 called so because it is usually here that we perish. And dear me! how cunningly these outposts are placed! Wherever a hillock rises, behind it you find an outpost. You are marching along, and stumble upon it without warning. The Lord have mercy on us!”
“But you have already been twice over the ground!”
“That is true.” And the dull eyes of the old man kindled. “Listen to what I say, and do as I bid you. Shortly they will call on those who wish to volunteer as workmen in the mill. Have your names put down on the list; and when they are sending the provisions thither, put your rusks and biscuits in the cart. Peter, a former convict, has charge of the mill. Then will be the time for you to escape—I mean, when you get to the mill. You will not be missed for three days. That is the way things are managed here. You can
