The station was some miles off. Miles? Each mile seemed to the tortured traveller a league; each league a day’s journey; the physical pain consumed him, wore him down as mental anguish might have done. But at last the station was reached; Burnaby sprang from the sleigh, rushed into the waiting-room, and to three Cossacks whom he met there showed his hands. Straightway they conducted him into an outer apartment, took off his coat, bared his arms, and plunged him into a tub of ice and water up to the shoulders. He felt nothing. “Brother,” said the eldest of the soldiers, shaking his head, “it is a bad job; you will lose your hands.” “They will drop off,” remarked another, “if we cannot get back the circulation.” “Have you any spirit with you?” asked a third. Nazar, on hearing this inquiry, immediately ran out, and returned with a tin bottle containing naphtha for cooking purposes; upon which the Cossacks, taking the Major’s arms out of the icy water, proceeded to rub them with the strong spirit. Rub, rub, rub; the skin peeled under their horny hands, and the spirit irritated the membrane below. At last a faint sensation like tickling—we are using the Major’s own words—pervaded the elbow-joints, and he slightly flinched. “Does it hurt?” asked the eldest Cossack. “A little.” “Capital, brothers,” he continued; “rub as hard as you can;” and after continuing the friction until the flesh was almost flayed, they suddenly plunged his arms again into the ice and water. This time, the pain was sharp. “Good,” exclaimed the Cossacks. “The more it hurts, the better chance you have of saving your hands.” And after a short time they let him remove his arms from the tub. “You are fortunate, little father,” said the eldest Cossack. “If it had not been for the spirit your hands would have dropped off, even if you had not lost your arms.” “Rough, kind-hearted fellows were these poor soldiers,” adds Major Burnaby; “and when I forced on the oldest of them a present for himself and comrades, the old soldier simply said, ‘Are we not all brothers when in misfortune? Would you not have helped me if I had been in the same predicament?’” The Major shook his hand heartily, and retired to the waiting-room to rest upon the sofa, as the physical shock he had undergone had for the moment thoroughly prostrated him. Moreover, his arms were sore and inflamed, the spirit having in some places penetrated the raw flesh; and several weeks elapsed before he thoroughly recovered from the effects of his carelessness. * * * * *