rom twelve to
twenty-five versts apart, according to the difficulty of the country, a
verst being about two-thirds of an English mile. At these post-houses
relays of horses are always kept in readiness for one or two vehicles,
but word is sent on before when political prisoners are coming, and
extra relays are obtained by the post-masters from the peasants.

To Godfrey the sensation of being whirled through the air as fast as the
horses could gallop was, after his long confinement, perfectly
delightful, and he fairly shouted with joy and excitement. Now that they
were past Ekaterinburg, Godfrey's guard, a good-tempered-looking young
fellow, seemed to consider that it was no longer necessary to preserve
an absolute silence, which had no doubt been as irksome to him as to his
companion.

"We can talk now. Why are you so merry?"

"To be in the air again is glorious," Godfrey said, "I should not mind
how long the journey lasted if it were like this. How far do we travel
in carriages?"

"To Tiumen, 300 versts; then we take steamer again, that is if you go
farther."

"You don't know where we are going to then?"

"Not at all, it will be known at Tiumen; that is where these things are
settled generally, but people like you are under special orders. You
don't look very wicked;" and he smiled in a friendly way as he looked at
the lad beside him.

"I am not wicked at all, not in the way you think," Godfrey said.

"Do not talk about that," the soldier interrupted, "I must not know
anything about you; talk about other things, but not why you are here."

Godfrey nodded. "If we go on beyond Tiumen we go by steamer, do we not?"

"Yes, through Tobolsk to Tomsk, beyond that we shall drive. You are
lucky, you people, that you drive, the others walk; it is long work, but
not so long as it used to be, they say. I have been told that in the old
times, when they started on foot from Moscow it took them sometimes two
years to reach the farthest places. Now they have the railway, and the
steamers on the river as far as Tomsk."

"How do they take them in the steamers?"

"They take them in great barges that are towed; we passed two on our way
to Perm. They hold five or six hundred, there is a great iron cage on
deck, and they let half the number up at a time in order to get air.
They are always going along at this time of year, for they all go early
in the season so as to get to the journey's end before the frosts set
in."

"But