But cross the river we must; it blocked our route westward. Sazonoff swam to the opposite bank. Malbrodsky plunged into the water and began to drown. The strong current swept him downstream; I dragged him out with difficulty. I myself was carried for several yards downstream; I began to suffocate, but in the nick of time I stuck the muzzle of my rifle into the river bottom and supported myself on it. We did not know what to do. We had no strength at all. We jumped recklessly into the water several times, and every time returned to the bank completely exhausted. Then Sazonoff gave us another exhibition of his skill in mastering any current; he carried each of us in turn over to the opposite bank on his back!

This was at three o'clock on the morning of June 15th.

CHAPTER V
FREEDOM

Linguistic Difficulties — Joyful Certainty — Bezsonoff's Diary — Finnish Peasant's Claim for Damages — A Friend in Need — Free at Last.

We had not a dry thread on us. Our cartridges were soaked. Our fingers shook with cold, we could not speak to one another. To crown all, our small supply of bread had run out. Luckily, a couple of days later we came upon a deer in the woods, and Bezsonoff, who had contrived, unlike the rest of us, to keep his ammunition dry, shot it. In our joy we ate half of it at once without bread. We made soup out of a part of it, and took the cooked meat that was left over along with us. The result of this feast was that we all fell ill with an acute gastric disorder, and for several days were so weak that we could hardly walk.

After a long tramp we came, two days after we had crossed the river, to a cottage. We went in and asked the people to sell us bread and other food. They could not speak or understand a word of Russian. Supposing ourselves to be already in Finland,[[35]] we repeatedly asked:

"Where are we? What is this? Finland? Russians?"

We had recourse to mimicry, to talking on our fingers. It was quite useless. (On arriving in Finland, by the way, we discovered that the Finnish name for the country is Suomi.)

We took some food of various kinds, and offered them a tchervonets. They would not take it. We gave them all our small change, ninety silver kopeks; they took the silver. We went off, followed by unfriendly looks.

Several more days passed, full of uncertainty. Had we crossed the frontier or not? Were we in Finland or still in the U.S.S.R.? If we assumed the former to be the case, did we not risk making our escape a failure after all the difficulties we had overcome, and falling into the hands of the Tchekists again?