ng of a
perfect disguise, I came yesterday to the local scoundrels,--the "high
commission of investigations" as they call this filthy, impossible
place where they meet. It used to be the Ecclesiastical School in
other days. I had quite a time penetrating these regions guarded by
the Reds. The man to whom I was recommended was an elderly kind-faced
fellow. All he was saying to me was virtually addressed to the crowd
of Reds in the room; as for the room, I think it used to be in former
times the professors' room.

"Yes, yes,--your credentials are perfect. Comrade Schmelin,--of
course I know him! You have no such troubles in Tumen as we have here.
But--all must be done. And for the sake of the Revolution and the
Proletariat--we are here, and will do our duty."

To show how much power he had, he gave some orders to the Reds. They
would come near him to take these orders, stand still as they were
standing only a few months ago before an officer, and then turn in the
brusque manner of soldiers.

The kind faced man--with his sly Jewish features and bulgy big eyes,
did not ask me who I was, how I was, and why I wanted the position
of an "advising commissary" with the detachment. He looked at me,
and smiled,--read the letter I presented,--and, seeing on my face
an admiration for his splendor, accepted me. My God, how alike these
people-in-power are! I remember, in my early days, the Count Witte,
a man with heavy, depressing looks. He liked this move of a
man-of-power. I recollect Mr. Kokovtzev who liked so much to see
admiration on his visitor's face.... I see this little insignificant
and blunt Kerensky, that fished for worship.... And here,--this
"tovarishch" Nachman--sitting in his chair and ruling--had the same
identical signs of self-respect, self-adoration, and independence.
And--with all of them--I would, without any effort, just by
instinct, get on their feeble side, change the whole expression of my
face,--even think like them, and love them,--and win. The instinct of
accommodation is a great thing,--and, it seems to me I possess it in
sufficient volume.

So--accepted in the ranks of those that go wherever they wish, that
do whatever their left foot feels like doing, those that continue to
remodel the country, those that are so free in every action--I sat
near the powerful man,--Comrade Nachman--as equal to equal.

But--what I really could not conceive,--was the range of his duties;
he was judge, and governor, an