erlocutors. I thought I had
better resume my pretended ignorance of Russian and trust to German to
carry me through, as it did. I was allowed to board one of the cars at
last; they were filthy, lighted only by a candle here and there, and
crowded with refugees of all classes. I was lucky to get in at all, and,
though all the cars were soon crammed to their utmost capacity, it was
an hour or more before the train started. Then it crawled and jolted
through the darkness at a pace that I reckoned would land us at
Alexandrovo somewhere about noon next day,--if we ever got there at all.

But the indescribable discomforts of that long night journey at least
prevented anything in the way of coherent thought. I look back on it now
as a blank interval; a curtain dropped at the end of a long and lurid
act in the drama of life.

At Alexandrovo more soldiers, more hustling, more interrogations; then
the barrier, and beyond,--freedom!

I've a hazy notion that I arrived at a big, well-lighted station, and
was taken possession of by some one who hustled me into a cab; but the
next thing I remember clearly was waking and finding myself in bed,--a
nice clean bed, with a huge down pillow affair on top,--in a big
well-furnished room. That down affair--I couldn't remember the name of
it for the moment--and the whole aspect of the room showed that I was in
a German hotel; though how I got there I really couldn't remember. I
rang the bell; my hand felt so heavy that I could scarcely lift it as
far, and it looked curiously thin, with blue marks, like faint bruises
on it, and the veins stood out.

A plump, comfortable looking woman, in a nurse's uniform, bustled in;
and beamed at me quite affectionately.

"Now, this is better! Yes, I said it would be so!" she exclaimed in
German. "You feel quite yourself again, but weak,--yes, that is only to
be expected--"

"Will you be so good as to tell me where I am?" I asked, as politely as
I knew how; staring at her, and wondering if I'd ever seen her before.

"Oh, you men! No sooner do you find your tongue and your senses than you
begin to ask questions! And yet you say it is women who are the
talkers!" she answered, with a kind of ponderous archness. "You are at
the Hotel Reichshof to be sure; and being well taken care of. The head?"
she touched my forehead with her firm, cool fingers. "It hurts no more?
Ah, it has healed beautifully; I did well to remove the strappings
yesterday. There will be