Russian Amerika by Stoney Compton Read Free Book Online Page B

glanced around the clearing, locating all four Cossacks. The soldiers would give a man time to catch his breath. But the Cossacks interpreted a prisoner's lack of motion as a personal affront.

    Grisha waved madly until the closest Cossack nodded, then grabbed a handful of leaves and scuttled into the brush toward the malodorous slit trench. He dropped his ragged trousers and balanced narrow buttocks across the birch pole that served as a seat. Carefully he breathed through his mouth while his bowels released their watery load. He allowed himself to dwell on the fact that he was still losing weight before forcing his thoughts elsewhere.

    Unbidden, unstoppable, he thought of Pravda and the clean pleasure of running full out down some beautiful channel.

    His sphincter clenched and he briskly used the leaves with his left hand. He pushed himself off the pole and bent to pull up his pants. A dizzying blow sent him reeling forward to fall full on his face, his clothing still down around his ankles.

    Quickly he rolled onto his back and pulled his knees up over his exposed loins. Vich-something, the Cossack sergeant, towered over him, legs wide, arms akimbo, and his gravel voice ground at Grisha.

    "With good fortune you're blessed, pretty one," he said in Russian.
    "Out of twenty new mares, four of them are actually female. But soon you will know a stallion's strength, just like all the other animals on our little farm." He laughed without pretense at humor.

    "Quickly return to work, you dung-eater! Or I will geld you now before your strength dissipates."

    Grisha jerked the trousers up as he rolled over, lurching to his feet he ran toward the rapidly rising lodge. He knew he could kill one of them with his bare hands, but not four, especially when all were armed. He hoped to last long enough to kill at least one.

    Basil, the wide-shouldered Georgian, grunted as he pried a log end up to secure the rope around it. Grisha skidded to a halt next to him, already on his knees, and pushed the noose over the squared-off tree trunk.

    The straw boss, a thick Indian or Creole woman from somewhere to the west, barked a command and four women tightened the rope to take the log's weight off the pry bar. Grisha jumped up and helped hoist the log high enough to maneuver the end into the corner notch where it belonged.

    At the other corner of the ten-meter wall, Basil, the wild-haired woodsman, hacked furiously to cut the place where the log's lower end would fit. Grisha scrambled up the wall and released the noose. Sallow-faced Andreivich, who had talked less and less as his strength drained, pushed the crude derrick around to position the rope above the back of Samis.

    The burly army guard stepped forward and pointed his rifle in their general direction as Samis finished the cut before lowering himself to the ground. His short ax hung by a rope thong looped around his neck. He ignored the guard as he scrambled up onto the next corner. Taking a deep breath and careful aim he hacked out another joint.

    As he went through the achingly familiar motions yet again, Grisha's thoughts drifted to the forest. This might be bad, but out there could be worse. Rumors told of work parties disappearing, Cossacks, guards, and all, never to be heard of again.

    They had been told cannibals lurked in the dense forest waiting for the unwary. No matter how grim their life under the Cossacks, they continued to live.

    However, he was sure they were in Dená country, or very close to it. Soldiers from here had served under him in the Troika Guard. If there were cannibals roaming the forest he would have heard about it long ago.

    But slipping away without even a knife would mean starving to death, or perhaps ending up as dinner for a bear. He reflected that, in all his military travels, until now he had never been to the interior of Russian Amerika.

    Irena poked him sharply with her elbow.

    "You're cloud-gazing again, slave. Pay attention and help me pull