bility, we took up the cause of the common people."

"Nihilists?" asked Ned eagerly, for he had read something of these
desperate men.

"No, and not anarchists," said Mr. Petrofsky with a sad smile. "Our
party was opposed to violence, and we depended on education to aid our
cause. Then, too, we did all we could in a quiet way to help the poor.
My brother and I invented several life-saving and labor-saving machines
and in this way we incurred the enmity of the rich contractors and
government officials, who made more money the more people they could
have working for them, for they made the people buy their food and
supplies from them.

"But my brother, and I persisted, with the result that we were both
arrested, and, with a number of others were sent to Siberia.

"Of the horrors we endured there I will say nothing. However, you have
probably read much. In the country near which we were quartered there
were many mines, some of salt and some of sulphur. Oh, the horrors of
those mines! Many a poor exile has been lost in the windings of a salt
mine, there to die miserably. And in the sulphur mines many die also,
not from being lost so much as being overcome by stifling gases. It is
terrible! And sometimes they are purposely abandoned by their guides,
for the government wants to get rid of certain exiles.

"But you are interested in platinum. One day my brother and I who had
been sent to work in the salt mines, mistook a turning and wandered on
and on for several miles, finally losing our way. We had food and water
with us, or we would have perished, and, as it was, we nearly died
before we finally found our way out of an abandoned opening.

"We came out in the midst of a terrible snowstorm, and wandered about
almost frozen. At last we were found by a serf who, in his sled, took
us to his poor cottage. There we were warmed and fed back to life.

"We knew we would be searched for, as naturally, our absence would lead
to the suspicion that we had tried to escape. So as soon as we were
able, we started back to the town where we were quartered. The serf
wanted to take us in his sled, but we knew he might be suspected of
having tried to aid us to get away, and he might be arrested. So we
went alone.

"As might have been expected, we became lost again, and wandered about
for several days. But we had enough food to keep us alive. And it was
during this wandering that I came upon the platinum mine. It was down
in a valley, in