Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/305

Rh while the criminal prisoners at once retreated from their fence. Revenge had been taken, and nobody seemingly paid any attention to the victim—with one marked exception.

He was a new inmate of the prison, a terrible one, as terrifying as a bird of prey. He was even like a bird of prey because of his eyes, his sharp features and his movements, filled with a dominating sense of power. He was called "the Eagle" and had been the leader of a gang of robbers terrorizing the Amur. He wore irons on his hands and feet and expected to be condemned to death, but the tribunal was slow in reaching its decision, owing to the fact that it was having investigations made in several towns through which his bloody trail had passed.

The Eagle was confined in a separate cell, where for whole hours at a time he stood holding the bars and looking out through them at the beautiful woman, as she walked in the yard. The same day he met the Georgian, who had thrown the stone at the woman, in the corridor of the second floor and hurled the man down a flight of stairs with such emphasis that the Georgian had some broken ribs to count when he arrived at the bottom.

"That from the Eagle, because of your treatment of a lady," the man in irons shouted after the fallen Georgian and calmly turned away to go to the kitchen to get water for his tea.

The attack on the good-looking woman excited the women prisoners, who had also taken umbrage at the behaviour of the new arrival. Sneers, petty vexations and nagging began, while some of the old timers even attacked her and injured her rather seriously. Then the authorities moved her to a separate cell on the second floor, for some days after which she was never seen,