ould say that a convict
here is better off than a peasant at home. But here we are at the
post-house."

CHAPTER V.

AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE.

The stay at the post-houses was very short. As soon as the vehicles were
seen coming along the straight level road, the first set of horses were
brought out, and the leading tarantass was ready to proceed in two or
three minutes. The other horses were changed as quickly, and in less
than ten minutes from their arrival the whole were on their way again.
While the horses were being changed the prisoners were permitted to get
out and stretch their legs, but were not allowed to exchange a word with
each other or with anyone else. At every fourth stage a bowl of soup
with a hunch of bread was brought to each prisoner by one of the guards
at the ostrov or prison, where the convicts were lodged as they came
along. There were rugs in the vehicles to lay over them at night when
the air was sharp and chilly, although in the day the sun had great
power, and the dust rose in clouds under the horses' feet.

There was little of interest to be seen on the journey. Only round the
villages was there any cultivation, and the plains stretched away
unbroken save by small groups of cattle, horses, and sheep. Although
Godfrey had not minded the shaking of the springless vehicle for the
first stage or two, he felt long before he reached the journey's end as
if every bone was dislocated. As a rule the road was good, but in some
places, where it passed through swampy tracts, it had given in the
spring thaw, and had been cut into deep ruts. Here the shaking as they
passed along at night was tremendous. Godfrey and his companion were
dashed against each other or against the sides with such force that
Godfrey several times thought his skull was fractured, and he was indeed
thankful when, after forty hours on the road, they drove into Tiumen.

Tiumen is a town of over 15,000 inhabitants, and is the first town
arrived at in Siberia proper, the frontier between Russia and that
country running between Ekaterinburg and that town. Here the prisoners
were at once placed on board a steamer, and Godfrey was glad indeed to
throw himself down upon the bed, where he slept without waking until the
steamer got under way in the morning. He was delighted to see that the
port-hole was not, as in the first boat, blocked by an outside shutter,
but that he could look out over the country as they passed along. For a
ti