Excerpt from Stories of the Steppe He seemed utterly unconscious of the cold blasts of: the wind that whipped open his gypsy cloak, exposing and lashing unmercifully his hairy bronze-colored chest. Turning toward me his free, strong and handsome face from his recumbent post ure, he thoughtfully puffed away at his big pipe, blowing thick clouds of smoke from his mouth and nostrils. His motionless eyes were fixed beyond me upon the darkness that stretched endlessly over the death-like silence of the steppe. He talked to me without interruption, making no motion whatsoever to shield himself against the pitiless bull'eting of the storm. And so you are joining us? That's fine! You have chosen a Splendid course, Falcon. We all have to meet our fate. Go about and see the world, and when you have seen enough, lie down and die and that's all! About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.