of April and
the 24th of November. Useless to interrogate the old river dogs among
the subordinates. The "We don't know" is even more inveterate with them,
and it is reinforced with the just comment, "We are not the masters."

Knowing nothing, in the general uncertainty, except that we must land
some time during the night, we were afraid to make ourselves comfortable
even to the extent of unpacking sheets to cool off the velvet divans,
which filled two sides of our luxurious cabin. When we unbolted the
movable panels from the slatted door and front wall, to establish a
draft of fresh air from the window, a counter-draft was set up of
electric lights, supper clatter, cigarette smoke, and chatter, renewed
at every landing with the fresh arrivals. We resolved to avoid these
elegant mail steamers in the future, and patronize the half-merchandise
boats of the same line, which are not much slower, and possess the
advantage of staterooms opening on a corridor, not on the saloon, and
are fitted with skylights, so that one can have fresh air and quiet
sleep.

At four o'clock in the morning we landed. The local policeman, whose
duty it is to meet steamers, gazed at us with interest. The secret of
his meditations we learned later. He thought of offering us his
services. "They looked like strangers, but talked Russian," he said. The
combination was too much for him, and, seeing that we were progressing
well in our bargain for a conveyance, he withdrew, and probably solved
the riddle with the aid of the postboy.

The estate for which we were bound lay thirty-five versts distant; but
fearing that we might reach it too early if we were to start at once, I
ordered an equipage for six o'clock. I was under the impression that the
man from the posting-house had settled it for us that we required a pair
of horses, attached to whatever he thought fit, and that I had accepted
his dictation. The next thing to do, evidently, was to adopt the Russian
stop-gap of tea.

The wharfinger, who occupied a tiny tenement on one end of the dock,
supplied us with a bubbling _samovar_, sugar, and china, since we were
not traveling in strictly Russian style, with a fragile-nosed teapot and
glasses. We got out our tea, steeped and sipped it, nibbling at a bit of
bread, in that indifferent manner which one unconsciously acquires in
Russia. It is only by such experience that one comes to understand the
full--or rather scanty--significance of that puzzling