Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/230

218 the frightened guards even forgot to close the doors into this court. Only the sentinels outside the high board fence kept their posts.

Arsenieff carefully watched the developments and, when the authorities and staff had all gathered in the most populous and most protesting cell, he slipped unnoticed into the yard, noiselessly climbed the fence until he could see over the top, and there made out a guard not two paces away from him with his head turned in the other direction, as he stared into the upper windows of the tumultuous prison. Back of the prison yard was an open lot covered with a rank growth of high weeds and thick bushes.

Suddenly Arsenieff drew himself up and jumped down behind the astonished soldier, who from fright fumbled and dropped his rifle, while the fugitive was making off for the bushes, and only then let go a shot at him and blew the warning whistle that started all the others. Arsenieff succeeded in getting away and disappeared without a trace, while the soldier, after reporting how the thing had occurred, was tried and sentenced to four months in prison for having bungled the matter. I never heard anything more as to the fate of the daring prisoner. Did he ultimately succeed in evading the authorities, who must have instituted a doubly careful search for him; or was he finally captured and executed, as a man already condemned and in addition a fugitive now placed beyond the law? I remember only his dreamy and very sad eyes.

Severe criticism and considerable difficulties were visited upon the authorities of the prison as a result of this escape, and we prisoners were also punished by being deprived of our walks for a week and by having all the doors of our cells locked, so that there could be no further communication between us. However, these measures did