Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/342

330 for this part of the world. After a while I began putting aside some money and allowed myself to dream about buying a piece of land for my old parents and of living there with them myself. I am a locksmith and consequently, with this desire to get ahead, I worked in the town during my hours away from the railway shops and did everything I could to increase my earnings.

"One Sunday I went to the station to see the express go through. When it pulled up, an elegantly dressed gentleman got out of the first-class carriage, looked round a bit and then came up to me. He asked me what I was doing and, hearing that I worked here and had a house, he seemed very pleased and begged me to take care of a valise for a friend of his, who would call and claim it. He warned me to observe great caution and gave me twenty-five roubles for my help to him. I felt terribly lucky, took the valise home and afterwards surrendered it to another gentleman who called for it. This repeated itself several times a week and brought me fine profits, but I give you the word of an honest convict that I did not even suspect what was going on.

"However, a few months later I understood it all with painful clearness. The revelation came one night when the police and the gendarmes invaded my place, searched everywhere and found the valise, which had only that day been given in trust to me, and in it articles which they said had been stolen. I was arrested and, though I defended myself as vigorously as I could before the tribunal, I was convicted and sentenced to half a year in prison. I could not bring myself to tolerate such an injustice, as I was entirely ignorant of the fact that thieves had made a hiding place of my lodging; yet all my petitions and protests, which I presented, proved of absolutely no avail. Then I decided to fly away. I climbed