Page:Ossendowski - The Shadow of the Gloomy East.djvu/66

50 ments followed quickly, till one day an order reached the prison authorities demanding that the woman be sent back from Siberia to the South of Russia.

Her manner seemed to become even more profound, grave, and slow. She ceased lifting her eyes altogether and to address anybody.

The other inmates of the prison cell understood that Gulkina knew that she would be condemned to death. Meanwhile she spent all the day in the prison yard, walking with her head downcast and gazing obstinately upon the ground.

"She is being tormented by a mortal terror." the prisoners explained to me, "It's always the case with those who know they are going to be hanged."

At last the day appointed for her removal to Russia approached. The night before the "viedunya" fell ill; bathed with sweat and writhing with pain, she quickly lost strength and fainted. She was brought round and fell asleep. At an early hour of the morning the guard noticed that she was lying in an unnatural position. The prisoner was dead.

The great criminal had inflicted upon herself the just penalty of her crimes with the aid of some poison grass she discovered while walking in the prison yard and scouring the ground. A few leaves of this were found in the little knot twisted together in her handkerchief.