He had neglected no means
of acquiring information about Siberia and the adjacent countries. For
this he had listened to the revolting confidences of the malefactors
at the barracks--for this he heard with unflagging attention, yet with
no sign of interest, the long stories of the traders who came to the
distillery from all parts of the empire to sell grain or buy spirits.
The office in which he passed his time from eight in the morning
until ten or eleven at night was their _rendezvous_, and by a
concentration of his mental powers he acquired a thorough and accurate
knowledge of the country from the Frozen Ocean to the frontiers of
Persia and China, and of all its manners and customs. The prisoner who
meditates escape, he says, is absorbed in an infinitude of details and
calculations, of which it is only possible to give the final result.
Slowly and painfully, little by little, he accumulated the
indispensable articles--disguise, money, food, a weapon, passports.
The last were the most essential and the most difficult: two were
required, both upon paper with the government stamp--one a simple pass
for short distances and absences, useless beyond a certain limit and
date; the other, the _plakatny_, or real passport, a document of vital
importance. He was able to abstract the paper from the office, and a
counterfeiter in the community forged the formula and signatures.
Pages:
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32