The Cossack guards came sulkily back from their gambling bout. The
exiles were placed in elk-team sleds, and the remaining thousand miles
to the Pacific resumed. But the spree had left the soldiers with sore
heads. At the first camping place they were gambling again. On the
sixth day out luck turned so heavily against one soldier that he lost
his entire belongings to the captain of the troops, flew in a towering
rage, and called his officer some blackguard name. The officer
nonchalantly took over the {111} gains, swallowed the insult, and
commanded the other Cossacks to tie the fellow up and give him a
hundred lashes.
For a moment consternation reigned. There are some unwritten laws even
among the Cossacks. To play the equal, when there was money to win,
then act the despot when offended, was not according to the laws of
good fellows among Cossacks. Before the officer knew where he was, he
had been seized, bundled out of the tent, stripped naked and flogged on
the bare back three hundred strokes.
He was still roaring with rage and pain and fear when a coureur came
thundering over the path from Yakutsk with word that Hoffman had died
suddenly, leaving certain papers suspected of conspiracy, which were
being forwarded for examination to the commander on the Pacific.
Pages:
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157