He took the thirty steps, and there he saw that the forest came to an end. He went to the edge of it, and there it was quite light. Before him lay the steppe and the fortress, as in the palm of the hand, and to the left, close by at the foot of the mountain, fires were burning and going out, and the smoke was spreading, and men were near the camp-fires. He took a sharp look at them: the guns were glistening,--those were Cossacks and soldiers. Zhilín was happy. He collected his last strength and walked down-hill. And he thought: "God forfend that a Tartar rider should see me in the open! Though it is not far off, I should not get away." No sooner had he thought so, when, behold, on a mound stood three Tartars, not more than 150 fathoms away. They saw him, and darted toward him. His heart just sank in him. He waved his arms and shouted as loud as he could: "Brothers! Help, brothers!" Our men heard him, and away flew the mounted Cossacks. They started toward him, to cut off the Tartars. The Cossacks had far to go, but the Tartars were near. And Zhilín collected his last strength, took the stocks in his hand, and ran toward the Cossacks. He was beside himself, and he made the sign of the cross, and shouted: "Brothers! Brothers! Brothers!" There were about fifteen Cossacks. The Tartars were frightened, and they stopped before they reached him. And Zhilín ran up to the Cossacks. The Cossacks surrounded him, and asked: "Who are you? Where do you come from?" But Zhilín was beside himself, and he wept, and muttered: "Brothers! Brothers!" The soldiers ran out, and surrounded Zhilín: one gave him bread, another gruel, a third vódka; one covered him with a cloak, another broke off the lock. The officers heard of it, and took him to the fortress. The soldiers were happy, and his companions came to see him. Zhilín told them what had happened, and said: "So I have been home, and got married! No, evidently that is not my fate." And he remained in the service in the Caucasus. Not till a month later was Kostylín ransomed for five thousand. He was brought back more dead than alive. ERMÁK In the reign of Iván Vasílevich the Terrible there were the rich merchants, the Stroganóvs, and they lived in Perm, on the river Káma. They heard that along the river Káma, in a circle of 140 versts, there was good land: the soil had not been ploughed for centuries, the forests had not been cut down for centuries. In the forests were many wild animals, and along the river fish lakes, and no one was living on that land, but only Tartars passed through it. The Stroganóvs wrote a letter to the Tsar: "Give us this land, and we will ourselves build towns there and gather people and settle them there, and will not allow the Tartars to pass through it."