and
avoid all incriminating answers through a convenient failure of memory.
If not detected, he may in this way get off with a five years' sentence
as a vagrant. But if detected his last lot is worse than his first,
since the time he has already served goes for nothing.

There is another peril to which escaping prisoners are exposed. The
native tribes are apt to look upon them as game and shoot them down at
sight. It is said that they receive three roubles for each convict they
bring to the police, dead or alive. "If you shoot a squirrel," they say,
"you get only his skin; but if you shoot a _varnak_ [convict] you get
his skin and his clothing too."

Atkinson, the Siberian traveller, tells a remarkable story of an escape
of prisoners, which may be given in illustration of the above remarks.
One night in September, 1850, the people of Barnaoul, a town in Western
Siberia, were roused from their slumbers by the clatter of a party of
mounted Cossacks galloping up the quiet street. The story they brought
was an alarming one. Siberia had been invaded by three thousand Tartars
of the desert, who were marching towards the town. Nearly all the gold
from the Siberian gold-mines lay in Barnaoul, waiting to be smelted into
bars and sent to St. Petersburg. There was much silver also, with
abundance of other valuable government stores. All this would form a
rich booty for an army of nomad plunderers, could they obtain it, and
the news filled the town with excitement and alarm.

As the night passed and the day came on, other Cossacks arrived with
still more alarming news. The three thousand had grown to seven
thousand, many of them armed with rifles, who were burning the Kalmuck
villages as they advanced, and murdering every man, woman, and child who
fell into their hands. Some thought that the wild hordes of Asia were
breaking loose again, as in the time of Genghis Khan, and the terror of
many of the people grew intense.

By noon the enemy had increased to ten thousand, and the people
everywhere were flying before their advance. Hasty steps were taken for
defence and for the safety of the gold and silver, while orders were
despatched in all directions to gather a force to meet them on their
way. But as the days passed on the alarm began to subside. The number of
the invaders declined almost as rapidly as it had grown. They were not
advancing upon the town. No army was needed to oppose them, and Cossacks
were sent to stop the marc