At this time my position was rather difficult. Whether because of these raids being in contemplation and of the General Staff being unwilling that I should take part in them, or because some other correspondents had complained repeatedly about my being allowed to have mounted orderlies and to circulate generally wherever I liked, while they were now forbidden to leave Mukden, Colonel Pestitch, the censor, made repeated efforts to detach me from the Cossacks.
One day I rode into Mukden and found some of my confreres of the Press very angry because the censor had made themall promise not toleavethecity. They had asked him if this promise was also to be exacted from me, whereupon he said " yes," and gave them to understand
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that he was just lying low, waiting for me, and that as soon as I had entered the gates of the city he would pounce upon me, separate me from Philipoff, and make me remain in Mukden like my colleagues. This news greatly disquieted me, for I knew that the censor was living with his friend, the Russian Resident of Mukden, under whose orders were the soldiers who guarded the gates, and that these soldiers had received instructions to let no correspondent pass. I was caught, then, like a rat in a trap! But I determined to make a dash for freedom before the censor had got wind of my arrival, and accordingly sallied out. If I had left the city as usual by the south gate I should probably have been stopped, but, attended by my faithful Cossack, I galloped through the west gate, and, owing to my Russified appearance, to the headlong speed at which I rode, and to the fact that it was getting dark and that I wore no brassard, the soldiers at the gate were so impressed that, instead of arresting me, they called out the guard and gave me the military salute. I had determined to gallop past them in any case, and once outside the walls, it would not have been easy for them to catch me.
I had no difficulty in finding my way back to Mishchenko, for a huge chunk of country to the north of Mukden was now traversed by broad roads, running east and west, north and south, and marked at every crossing with finger-posts pointing out the way of retreat, like the signs in the American theatres pointing to the fire exits.
When I reached the Cossack camp and told my friends of my outlawed condition, they greeted me with as much enthusiasm as their fathers on the lower
Dneiper would have greeted an outlaw flying to the Sitch; and I think that if the censor had sent any emissary to bring me back, that emissary would have run a serious risk of being hanged.
I found that the Cossacks had now got huge " papakhas " or wolf-skin busbies with stripes of cloth of gold on the crown — a very ancient style of Cossack headgear, which greatly altered their appearance for the better, and of which they were as proud as a lady is of a new bonnet or as an Assam buffalo ought to be of his horns.
A few days later, a further change was made in their appearance when "polshuboks" were distributed amongst the men. These " polshuboks " were pelisses made of untanned white bearskin with the wool inside, fitting very tight, fastened down the middle of the breast by means of hooks, reaching nearly to the knee and smelling abominably. Philipoff brought me one, and it gave the finishing touches to my " Kazaksky " appearance.
I found that the Cossack officers had changed too, but in a different way. They had all become very studious, and were taking a particularly keen interest in nitro-glycerine and the blowing up of railway trains and bridges. They even had night schools, in which lectures on this fascinating business were given by an anaemic-looking young officer in spectacles, who had been sent to us by the General Staff. I attended some of these classes, for I found it distinctly interesting to watch this pale-faced professor show the students seated around him how to wreck railway property and derail engines. It was like attending a meeting of anarchists. The object of the whole thing was of course clear to me. We were going to send out expeditions to wreck the railway,
Meanwhile a large quantity of nitro-glycerine arrived in camp, and was stored in an empty house next to the one which I occupied. A sentinel was placed at the door of this house, and one of the duties of the officer of the day was to go to this sentinel the first thing in the morning and get him to repeat a long string of cautions like a child repeating the ten commandments. He was not to allow any one to enter the hut with a light, with his boots on, etc.; but, in spite of all this care, I half expected, from what I knew of " the careless Cossack " (as Pushkin calls him), to find myself travelling rapidly skyward some fine morning, owing to the explosion of the whole magazine.