On the face of the flood

"Ach, yes, Matvey Philipitch, and a very strange trouble it is, God knows! And with a secret to it, too, worse luck; for methinks there is danger for me, whether I find it out o...

AS the good foreman and his wife, with their young guest, sat round the table next morning, drinking their tea out of tumblers, in true Russian fashion, the door was rudely push...

NEVER had the finishing touches of any raft so keenly interested Sergey, as these of the "Swan." The chief object in the construction was to float in as small a compass as possi...

IT was small wonder that Sergey for a long minute stood aghast, helpless with surprise and fear. But with a strong effort he pulled himself together, reflecting that it was cert...

NO one in the little rafthouse on the "Swan" ever knew of Sergey's adventure that night. For, tired with the arduous day's work, and sleepy from fourteen to sixteen hours' expos...

SUDDENLY the ferocious gaze was veiled or turned aside, and Sergey heard a noise against the wall as of leaping, clawing, and tearing. This roused Ivan who, grasping his old gun...

Sergey had told the lady Elena his story, or at least that part of it relating to his uncle Abram Kapoostin, and to the finding of the ring. He had given her Matvey's address, a...

"Vassia," said he, "go and help Sasha. I would speak with our passenger," and he smiled pleasantly. "I came," he added, as his young brother left the cabin, "to ask what we are...

IT was just about a week after the adventure with Olga Kapoostin that on drifting down to the landing-stage of a riverside village late one afternoon, the young raftsmen were gl...

NO doubt Yefraim Issakoff of the saw-mill was wise enough to know that none of the usual modes of deception would be of any use with such an experienced skipper as old Ivan. And...

SERGEY waited and watched until, overcome with vodki fumes, all the men were lying round helpless, and many of them snoring. Not till then did he feel it safe to give up his anx...

NOTHING of any moment happened to the raftsmen and their cook-boy till they reached Krasnoi-Puil, where they had landed Olga Kapoostin. There they would have a day to wait befor...