were about to make a dash up the first acclivity,
when our worthy and disinterested baron
stepped forward, all smiles and bows, and said I
must pay him the small sum of thirty roubles
(more than four pounds ten).

"Thirty roubles!" I said, "and pray what
for?"

"For helping you across the river."

"Why you avaricious rascal, we have helped
ourselves across. I shall give your men a little,
but to you not a kopeck. You are no
Moscovsky dog, nor Chinovnick, you know."

"It may be so," he said; "you should not
have come. Now you are here what's to be
done? You must pay, before you leave here,
thirty roubles."

"Not a kopeck to you, but I shall give half
a rouble to every one of your men who helps us
to get safely up these hills."

"Not one of these men dares lift a hand to
help unless I tell him. I am master here. You
are now on my ground and in my power. Pay
you must. Besides," and here a peculiar grin
illuminated his monkey features, "am I not
acting against law to let you go on any terms?
Do you not know that you have drowned a
moosheck, and must answer to the police? I
have sent for the stanovog, and if you don't
now pay me fifty roubles I shall detain you till
he comes."

I became perfectly speechless at the rascal's cool
effrontery, and as he advanced with some of his
men to lay hands on me, lost, naturally enough,
all thought of consequences, and struck him a
straightforward blow which sent him staggering
back a few yards. "Now we are in for it, Harry;
strong measures and sharp. Catch him by the
neck; punch his head when I tell you."

"All right. That's your style," cried Harry;
and, catching him with one hand, with the other
he administered one of his gentle taps on one
side of the baron's face, which no doubt made
the sparks fly in his eyes.

"Turn t'other side, my lord," cried Harry;
and, shifting his hold, he repeated the blow on
the other cheek. I cannot tell how long this
would have continued, had I not begged Harry
to desist. The serfs seemed to be perfectly
paralysed at our audacity. Their baron, their
tyrant, their cruel task-master was catching it
in his turn. They did not seem to be in a
violent hurry to help him. In fact, I could see a
look of composed satisfaction and enjoyment
on their faces. But this mood was not to be
depended on, and two men are too few to cope
with twenty.

"Pitch him into the tarantass, Harry, and see
that he does not get out. That's it! Hand me
the pistols. Now look here, you ruffian, who
disgrace the name of a gentleman," and I pulled
from under my vest a certain medal with the
imperial ribbon attached to it. "See this, look
well, I am under the imperial protection, and
if—" But the moment his eye caught the
well-known stripes, his cheeks, which had been
crimsoned by the boxing of his ears, were
blanched with visions of Siberia. He became,
on the instant, as servile and crouching as he
had before been insolent.

"Ah," he said, " I am in fault. Pardon me,
my honourable sir. Let me out of this to
repair my blunder. Dogs, pigs, why don't you
help the gospodin! Ah, sir! why did you not
tell me at first? Pardon! I did not know!
God help me! I am lost."

"Remain where you are, and if my property
and these conveyances go over any of these
precipices, you shall go with them."

Harry danced round the fallen great man in
perfect ecstasies, shaking his great fists in his
face, and hardly to be restrained from giving
him what he eulogised as "a jolly good thrashing."

The serfs now lent their aid with a will, under
promise of a reward. So after a long time, and
many narrow escapes, we reached the high
ground, and were once more free to pursue the
journey. The baron was liberated; the money
was paid to the serfs, which might afterwards
be taken from them; and off we drove, carrying
one of them, as pilot, across the country, thirty-
five versts, to gain the Tula road, which we did
not reach until about two hours after midnight.

It may be noticed that since ten the previous
morning we had had no regular meals, and I did
not now think it safe to remain in this
neighbourhood. Obtaining, therefore, fresh cattle,
we set off again for Tula, which we ultimately
reached at noon, very cold, very tired, and very
hungry.

But for the difficulty in crossing the Serpukov
river, we might have been in Tula twenty hours
sooner, quite fresh and ready to proceed with
the second division of our journey. But now,
for the sake of the weaker portion of our freight,
we stopped at an inn.

OFFICIALLY RESCUED.

The most serious part of our recent adventure,
let me say as we pause, was not the craft and
cupidity of the baron in keeping the ice at the
side of the river open for days, and calculating
on his levy of black mail, but that, after saving
a man's life (which Harry most certainly did),
and when the others had allowed the man to die
for want of attention, even after our later efforts
to restore him, we were liable to be arrested,
lodged in prison, tried without jury, and
condemned for murder. We could have been fairly
condemned by Russian law, and the consequence
of the adventure to us, had we not been
protected, would have been a Siberia job, or a
quashing of the affair by large compensation to
the drowned man's master and the various
police officials. The Russian law is terribly
foolish and inhuman on this point. A dead
body, or a person in jeopardy of life, must not be
touched or helped except by the police. If any
one interferes and the man dies, that interference
brings after it a mass of trouble and expense
past calculation, besides danger of punishment.
A boat may be upset, its crew struggling in the
water, and the banks lined with spectators. Yet
if the men in the water cannot save themselves,