The country through which I now passed was as flat as a billiard-table, but it was very well cultivated, and, I should say, very prosperous, for the war had never touched it. I felt it odd not to see shrapnel on the remote horizon, and to realise that there were no longer any of the enemy's horsemen to keep a look-out for on the edge of the distant plain. I thought it odder to see fat hens and chickens walking placidly about the village streets, as if there wasn't a Cossack within a thousand miles of them. Again and again I found myself directing covetous glances towards fine old Chinese houses, such as General Mishchenko would undoubtedly have made his headquarters if he had come that way. My horse seemed to be in an equally demoralised condition, for I sometimes had difficulty in getting him past some of the well-stocked farmyards.
Towards evening my Chinese guide said that his horse was lame, and wanted me to stop for the night in some of the native inns which we passed; but I did not believe him, and, besides, I was determined in any case to get my wire off that day. Furthermore, it would be safer to stop at a railway-station, where I might probably meet with a foreigner, or where, at any rate, I had a chance of getting off by train to a safe place, than in a no-man's land where the Japanese might still catch me themselves, or induce the Chinese authorities to detain me, as I had no passport and therefore no right to travel in the district. I had also to consider the safety of my guide, who seemed wholly unconscious, however, of the danger in which he stood.
Accordingly I pushed on at my topmost speed, inquiring at every village how far we were from the railway. Luckily I understood enough Chinese to ask this question and to understand the answers to it; otherwise my guide might have succeeded in persuading me, as he tried hard to persuade me, that the distance was twice as great as was actually the case. I noticed, by the way, that he unblushingly mistranslated the answers of the villagers on this point. The distance was great enough, however. That railway seemed to fly before me like the horizon. Village after village I passed, and I seemed to be making very little progress. At last, long after the sun had sunk below the horizon, but while there was still some light in the sky, I descried at an immense distance a little square house standing out against the last faint flicker of red on the western clouds. From its foreign shape I knew at once that it was the railway-station that I was looking for, the station of Dava. As I came nearer I saw an embankment, then a railway bridge, then ten of the Viceroy Yuan Shikai's Chinese soldiers — the usual railway guard — strolling about on the line. On observing me they rapidly retreated towards the station, and I feared I was going to get one of their dum-dum bullets in my body just as I was on the brink of safety.
I got safely into the station, however, had my horse
attended to, sent off my telegram, and slept that night in a crowded Chinese " hotel " of the dirtiest description.
A few days after, I went to Tientsin by train. The conductor of the train, a young Englishman, an ex- Tommy, who had been in South Africa, and who had naturally a keen relish for adventure, took an extraordinary but embarrassing interest in me, owing, I suppose, to my Russian attire and to the romantic circumstances under which I had made my appearance, and insisted on hiding me in the kitchen of the dining car.
M Impossible," he said, " to go into the car. There are two Japs there! One is the chief of police at Shan-hai-kwan. If you show yourself, they'll try to take you off the train at Kupanze. They've often done it with Chinese. Why, they dragged a Chinaman out of this train only a few weeks back, and shot him behind my house in Kupanze. He was probably a Russian emissary of some sort, or had betrayed them or something. No, the Japanese were not in uniform, of course. In fact, they were disguised as Chinamen, but we all know that they are Japanese. This is their great centre for the organisation of the Hunghuze, you know. Yes, they've often dragged people out of this train. But let them try it this time! /'ll fix them. Now, keep quiet. Your revolver's loaded? Good! Have another whiskey and soda! I'll be back in a minute to report."