his conversation he mentioned that not long before he had been in China.
“We are too slow, dear chap, much too slow,” he declared; “with fifty thousand men we could take all that we want, and we ought to have attacked those Japanese long since.”
“Tell me, then,” said Heideck, with apparent indifference, “how strong really is the army of the Governor-General of Turkestan?”
The Russian looked up, but it was not because he was thinking what answer to give; for, after having tossed off a glass of soda-water, he replied—
“If you want to live well, my dear fellow, you must go to Manchuria. Salmon, I tell you—ah! and they cost next to nothing—and pretty girls in abundance! You can buy furs, too, for next to nothing at all. What costs in St. Petersburg ten thousand rubles, you can get in China, up there in the north, for a hundred.”
“Then of course you have brought some beautiful furs with you?”
“Furs in India? they would be eaten by the ants in a second. For my own personal use, I have certainly brought one with me, which in St. Petersburg would be worth, at the least, five thousand rubles. I shall have use enough for it later on, in the mountains. You can smell it a mile away, it has been pickled so well.”
Again there was a short pause, and then after gazing intently at his vis-a-vis, Heideck suddenly said—
“You are an officer?”
Without being able to collect himself the Russian stared into his face.
“Let us be candid with each other,” he rejoined, after long reflection. “You are also a soldier, sir?”
“I need not deny it in reply to a comrade. My name is Captain Hermann Heideck of the Prussian General Staff.”
The Russian rose and made a correct bow. “And my name is Prince Fedor Andreievitch Tchajawadse, Captain in the Preobraschensky regiment of the Guards.”
They then once more touched glasses: “To ourselves as good comrades” rang their mutual toast.
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