Condemned as a Nihilist: A Story of Escape from SiberiaHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
History
Condemned as a Nihilist: A Story of Escape from Siberia
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Escapes -- Fiction; Russia -- History -- Alexander II, 1855-1881 -- Fiction; Siberia (Russia) -- Fiction
"I don't suppose they are going to hang me, because they publish the
names of the fellows they hang; but imprisonment for years in one of
their ghastly dungeons is bad enough. If it is to be, it will be
Siberia, I hope. There must be some way of getting out of a big country
like that--north, south, east, or west. Well, I don't see any use
bothering over it. I have got into a horrible scrape, there is no doubt
about that, and I must take what comes."
Godfrey was essentially of a hopeful nature, and always looked at the
bright side of things. He was a strong believer in the adage, "Where
there is a will, there is a way." He had been in his full share of
scrapes at school, and had always made a rule of taking things easily.
He now examined the cell.
"Beastly place!" he said, "and horribly damp. I wonder why dungeons are
always damp. Cellars at home are not damp, and a dungeon is nothing but
a cellar after all. Well, I shall take a nap."
The next day Godfrey was again taken before the tribunal, and again
closely questioned as to his knowledge of the Nihilists. He again
insisted that he knew nothing of them.
"Of course I knew Akim Soushiloff and Petroff Stepanoff; but I had only
been in their rooms once before, and the only person I met there before
was the young woman who called herself Katia, but who you say was
somebody else. This was at the lodgings they occupied before."
"But you were found with Alexander Kinkoff and Paul Kousmitch."
"They only arrived a short time before the police entered. I had never
seen either of them before."
These two prisoners had been examined before Godfrey entered, and had
been questioned about him. Kousmitch had declared that he had never seen
him before, and the court knew that the spies who had been watching the
house had seen him enter but a short time before the police force
arrived. As the two statements had been made independently it was
thought probable that in this respect Godfrey was speaking the truth.
Not so, however, his assertions that he was unacquainted with any of the
other conspirators.
He was again taken back to his cell, and for the next week saw no one
but the warder who brought his bread and water, and who did not reply by
a single word to any questions that he asked him. Godfrey did his best
to keep up his spirits. He had learnt by heart at Shrewsbury the first
two books of the Iliad, and these he daily repeated aloud, set himself
equations to do, and solved them in his head, repeated the dates in
Greek history, and went through everything he could remember as having
learned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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