. The Siberian exiles. A novel . n the sleeping-benches every night, so thatthe verification before the shutting up of the kamerasdid not reveal what had happened. Now came the turn of Pushkin and Dubayeff to availthemselves of the road to liberty. The preparations for departure were made, and therewas an affecting scene in the kamera an hour or twobefore nightfall, when our friends said farewell to thosewho had so long been their companions in day Pushkin had seemed greatly depressed, and 240 THE SIBERIAN EXILES. more than once he was half determined to abandon theenterprise an
. The Siberian exiles. A novel . n the sleeping-benches every night, so thatthe verification before the shutting up of the kamerasdid not reveal what had happened. Now came the turn of Pushkin and Dubayeff to availthemselves of the road to liberty. The preparations for departure were made, and therewas an affecting scene in the kamera an hour or twobefore nightfall, when our friends said farewell to thosewho had so long been their companions in day Pushkin had seemed greatly depressed, and 240 THE SIBERIAN EXILES. more than once he was half determined to abandon theenterprise and remain in prison. He was cheered byDubayeff, but all that the latter was able to say couldnot wholly restore his spirits, which, down to that day,had been buoyant. The leave-taking was suddenly interrupted by theentrance of the commandant of the prison, accompaniedby a strong guard. It was customary for one of thewarders to notify the prisoners a few moments beforethe coming of an officer, but in this case no warningwas CHAPTER XXIV. FLOGGING WITH THE PLET. The prisoners were ordered into the ^^ard, and theirmovements were hastened by the soldiers, who hadorders to drive them out of the kameras at the point ofthe bayonet in case of resistance. Then the kameraswere searched and the dummy figures were foundunder the sleeping-benches. This was the first infor-mation that the officers had that any one had escaped. An immediate enumeration was ordered, and it wasfound that six prisoners were missing ; the presence ofthe eight dummies showed that two more were on thepoint of flight, and the commandant immediately setabout ascertaining their names. All were questioned one by one. Each man declinedto give any information other than that the choice togo out had been decided by lot, so that all were equallyguilty. This had been agreed to at the inception of theplot, and was so stated by every prisoner when his turncame to pass under the inquisition. Finding he could learn nothi
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