FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87  
88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   >>   >|  
onsequences. So far as we could ascertain, the whole of the crew had perished. I confess that their fate did not cost me any very great pang, after the first natural shock of horror had passed. They owed their death to their own lack of courage, which had caused them to take refuge in the lowest part of the ship, where the full force of the explosion came. The captain and I, thanks to our position on the bridge, had escaped with a comparatively mild shaking. The steersman would have escaped also, in all probability, had he been sober. In a very short time after the captain had joined me, our eyes were gladdened by the sight of a launch issuing from the fort to our assistance. The officer in charge had thoughtfully provided blankets and a flask of wine. Thus comforted, I was not long in fully recovering my strength, and by the time the launch had set us on shore my comrade in misfortune was also able to walk without difficulty. The lieutenant who had picked us up showed the greatest consideration on learning that we had been blown up in an attempt to run a cargo of coal for the benefit of the Russian fleet. On landing we were taken before Admiral Makharoff, the brave man whom fate had marked out to perish two months later by a closely similar catastrophe. The story which I told to the Admiral was very nearly true, though of course I suppressed the incidents which had taken place in Tokio. I said that I had been charged to deliver a private communication from the Czar to the Mikado, sent in the hope of averting war, that I had arrived too late, and that, having to make my way back to Petersburg, I had meant to do a stroke of business on the way on behalf of his excellency. My inspector's uniform, which I had resumed on leaving Yokohama, confirmed my words, and Admiral Makharoff, after thanking me on behalf of the navy for my zeal, dismissed me with a present of a thousand rubles, and a permit to travel inland from Port Arthur. Needless to say I did not forget to say good-by to my brave Englishman, to whom I handed over the Russian Admiral's reward, thus doubling the amount I had promised him for his plucky stand against the mutineers. I have hurried over these transactions, interesting as they were, in order to come to the great struggle which lay before me in the capital of Russia. CHAPTER XV THE ADVISER OF NICHOLAS II By the second week in March I was back in Petersburg. On the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87  
88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Admiral

 

Petersburg

 

escaped

 

captain

 

Russian

 
Makharoff
 

launch

 

behalf

 

excellency

 
inspector

business

 
stroke
 

communication

 

suppressed

 

incidents

 

closely

 

similar

 

catastrophe

 

averting

 

arrived


Mikado

 

charged

 

deliver

 

private

 

permit

 

interesting

 

struggle

 

transactions

 

plucky

 

mutineers


hurried

 
capital
 

NICHOLAS

 

CHAPTER

 

Russia

 
ADVISER
 

promised

 

dismissed

 

present

 

thousand


rubles

 

thanking

 

leaving

 

resumed

 

Yokohama

 

confirmed

 
travel
 

reward

 

handed

 

doubling