Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/325

Rh on the ground and told the fortunes of all the women convicts. No objection was made to this by the prison authorities, as the wives of the keepers and other prison officials wanted to profit by the advice of the sorceress. Finally the gipsy had satisfied the curiosity of all the women prisoners save Daria, who waited beside her, as lowering and as mysterious-looking as ever. After the others had gone, the prophetess sat for a long time muttering something, then took a new pack of cards and began to tell Black Daria's fortune. Several times she reshuffled and dealt the cards, evidently incredulous and wishing to verify their pronouncement; then she turned and said to Daria:

"In a week you will be free—in a week's time!" Daria's eyes were filled with astonishment, as she asked of the gipsy:

"I shall be free?"

"The cards say so and they are never mistaken," replied the gipsy woman, and added: "Show me your left hand."

As she said this, she drew from her pocket a small phial, washed the palm of Daria with the fluid it contained and began to examine the close network of lines that streaked it.

"Do you see," she whispered, "this is the line of torture, of suffering. One, two—seven lines cross it, which mean that from this day seven nights will pass and you will be free. Look! The line continues clearly to the little finger. In a week's time you will be free!"

The keeper on duty told me this, and, when I asked Daria, she confirmed the tale. Strange as it may seem to those of us who would like to keep the world well down on its scientific basis, within just a week a document arrived from Kazan, in which it was stated that it