m, and the usual escort of Cossacks standing
by their horses, making it seem very official. Of course, L----
became furious when he saw the big crowd of people, and asked whether
it was going to be a picnic. This word tickled one of the drunken
officers so much, that suddenly he let his loose legs relapse and
clapped his spurs into his animal, which reared horribly, and in the
end sent him on the ground. I thought I should die of laughter. Then
everybody became more and more fussy, because they were afraid of
L----, but, fortunately, the general started off ahead, muttering to
himself, and we rode after him like some procession. It seemed to me
very absurd, and at that point I lost all confidence in the success of
the expedition. Everyone had become too sanguine, and I fully believe
that you cannot have any luck in such affairs with a crowd of idiots.
Other people, who had no business to know of the affair, somehow
managed to join us on the way, and when we reached the Board of
Revenue we numbered dozens of men, not including the escorts.

There were about two companies of Russian infantry in occupation
there, as I have already said, and in the first halls we found armed
guards superintending hundreds of small Chinese boys at work stringing
together copper cash. There must have been millions and hundreds of
millions of these worthless coins either piled up in great mountains
or scattered on the floors, and it would take months to sort them out
and market them. It was the only thing the cunning Japanese had openly
left!

L---- now called the officers of the guard, and explained to them that
he was about to seize secret treasure which had been so well hidden by
the Chinese that the Japanese had not been able to find it. He told
them to give their assistance. The new officers, when they heard
this, looked so sharply at one another, that everyone began to
comment on it, and say that if there was nothing left they knew who
was guilty. It was becoming delightful.

We started off in a body with the _ku-ping_, or treasury guards, who
were giving the information, leading us. They took us past a good many
huge buildings that looked like grimy old warehouses, and then stopped
us short at one that appeared to be still barred and bolted. It took
some time to open these doors, although the officers of the guard said
that they had only been closed after they had taken over the place
from the Japanese; and when we got inside it was