"And I know yours also," Godfrey replied.
"Now that you speak I know you. You are the young Englishman, Godfrey Bullen."
"I am," Godfrey replied; "and you?"
"Alexis Stumpoff."
"So it is!" Godfrey exclaimed in surprise, and, delighted at this meeting, they shook hands cordially.
"But what are you here for?" Godfrey asked. "I thought that you had obtained an appointment at Tobolsk."
"Yes, I was sent out as assistant to the doctor of one of the prisons. I suppose you understood that it was not the sort of appointment one would choose."
"I was certainly surprised when I heard that you were going so far away," Godfrey said, "as my friends told me that you had property. It seemed almost like going into banishment."
"That was just what it was," the young doctor laughed. "I had been too outspoken in my political opinions, and one or two of our set had been arrested and sent out here; and when I was informed, on the day after I passed my examinations, that I was appointed to a prison at Tobolsk, it was also intimated to me that it would be more agreeable to go there in that capacity than as a prisoner. As I was also of that opinion, and as, to tell you the truth, some of our friends were for pushing matters a good deal farther than I cared about doing, I was not altogether sorry to get out of it."