The " izvoshcheeks " had gone on strike a few days before, so that crowds of people collected in the middle of the street undisturbed by the fear of being run over by one of these rapid vehicles. Suddenly there was a movement among these crowds of people. An "izvoshcheek" appeared, a sorry-looking specimen. The people fell back from it on both sides and stared. Why? Was an " izvoshcheek " such a curiosity as all that?
The soldiers and policemen saluted the " izvoshcheek." A hush fell on the crowd of gabblers. Something very unusual was taking place. The people in the rear craned their necks. The " izvoshcheek " came nearer. What was it, anyhow? It was something unusual.
Seated inside the vehicle was a figure which excited an odd mixture of feelings — an object which, while slightly ridiculous, was at the same time portentous. Some boys laughed. The brows of the elders clouded.
The person who caused these conflicting feelings was Mr. Midzuno, the Japanese consul from Chefoo. Mr. Midzuno was dressed in his gorgeous official robes, which gave him something of the air of an Armenian patriarch; but his face and figure contrasted strongly, almost ludicrously, with his ceremonial dress, for, like most of his countrymen, he is small, slight and boyish-looking. He would have looked all right in knickerbockers and a Norfolk jacket. Opposite Mr. Midzuno sat the constable of the Japanese Consulate in Chefoo, a clean-shaven, square-jawed man of medium size, who was also clad in his robes of office.
Some residents of Port Arthur recollected dimly as they gazed on the swarthy face of the " constable" that they had often seen him in Port Arthur before. He had always been in civilian dress on such occasions, sometimes in very shabby civilian dress. Well, perhaps on those occasions he had been merely running to earth some law-breaker. At all events he could have been doing nothing serious, for, although in social life the constable is sometimes a formidable personage, he is not a factor of any particular importance in international politics. I shall, therefore, say nothing further at present about Mr. Midzuno's " constable."
Behind the carriage came a motley collection of Japanese, those that had not yet fled from Port Arthur. The men did not form a striking procession. In shabby, ill-fitting European clothes and ancient hats, they looked like a collection of bankrupt tailors. Behind them came a number of richly dressed Japanese women, many of them young and handsome, and most of them smiling right and left at the Russian officers, with that excessively light and easy manner which marks the woman of a certain class all over the world.
Many of the men belonged to a profession in which a considerable number of the Japanese settled along the Chinese and Siberian coast were actively engaged; they were professional procurers. I have since heard that some of them combined this profession with the more honourable one of officers of the Imperial Japanese Staff, but I do not know whether this is a Russian calumny or not.
Some of the women were " amahs" (nurses), and had been employed in the families of the leading naval and military people in the port. Whether or not they picked up any valuable information in this way I do not know, but I am inclined to think that, especially in their cups, Russian officials sometimes forget that Japanese women have got sharp ears and unusually active brains.
Mr. Midzuno had chartered an English steamer, the Foochow, and came over in her from Chefoo in order to carry all his countrymen out of Port Arthur and Dalny. He had first spoken on this subject to Mr. Tiedelmann, the Russian consul in Chefoo; and Mr. Tiedelmann, while protesting that there would be no war and that, even if war did take place, the Japanese in Liaotung would never be molested, extended every facility to his brother consul, that is he got the quarantine abolished in his favour at Port Arthur and he gave him a special pass which relieved him from a lot of troublesome formalities.
" But excuse me," cried Mr. Midzuno, when this had been done, "my constable is going with me. Please give him a special pass also."
Mr. Tiedelmann was only too happy to do so. He laughed lightly as he did it. The consul of his
Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Japan evidently meant to do this big u bluff" in style. Well, there was no harm in humouring him.