20. "My Charybdis conducted me to the barracks where a lot of undisciplined philosophers were discussing the parceling out of land…. The ringleader was a round-headed, long-nosed and bulky individual with a shaggy beard and dirty uniform…. I knew him in an instant, but he did not recognize me … he was one of Von der Goltz' men who aided in the defense at Gallipoli…. The night before the Allied fleet withdrew he was lying beside a short, thickset and dark-haired Associated Press reporter with a German name and tortoise-shell eyeglass and was telling that same reporter that unless REINFORCEMENTS arrived AT ONCE the defenses would collapse!… The next day he was at Headquarters informing the General in command that BUT FOR HIM the Turkish forces would have surrendered!… He is NOW wearing a number of decorations for his military skill and bravery…. Such are the fortunes of war!… This is the man who one minute preaches communism and another minute gravely asserts that it will be a good thing for the Kaiser to get killed in the war so as to guarantee the SUCCESSION of the Empire…. Perhaps he is doing this for my benefit…. Anyway he occupies the center of the stage at present and GOVERNS this greedy and unruly mob by kicking discipline into a cocked hat and allowing every unshaved Bolshevik his own unrestricted way!… Under other circumstances I should dearly like to meet this boastingFuriosoin a ten-foot ring when a little exercise is needed to keep myself in trim…. But NOW I am accepted as a BOLSHEVIK,—one of the elect, privileged to select my lady and rob and pillage when I please!…This suits me very well… but on maturereflectionit seems to me that a FEW in this literally UNGODLY gang are playing a very cunning part…. If that BE so I amnotso sure how far my own assumed conversion to the doctrine of rapine will protect my skin…. So far, however, I have adopted the policy of vindictiveness, and, when asked a question, I merely growl and swear like a trooper….I am making an impression…."
21. "On the way here the HERO of Gallipoli took quite a fancy to me, because I could beat him swearing perhaps…. Growing confidential over his liquor and Turkish cigarettes he asked point-blank: 'Didn't I see you at the TWELFTH DAY CEREMONY at the Winter Palace the time the Archbishop lost the golden cross in the river, a few years ago?'… I thought it better to deny the acquaintance and the incident…. I could have easily recalled the ceremony on the Neva, the decorated pavilion on the ice in front of the palace, the procession of church dignitaries in their stiff Byzantine robes and scintillating mitres moving slowly across the road followed by the Grand Dukes and the Emperor, the clear voices of the choir cutting through the frosty air, the ladies of the Court standing near the window and crossing themselves as the Czar stood motionless beneath the gilded and fretted canopy,—I could have recalled it all… but I swore profanely and declared emphatically that ALL RELIGION WAS A COBWEB AND A SNARE to emancipated minds…. I pretended to get violently MAD about it and told him I would strangle any man who insulted me by accusing me of the most distant relationship with any religion excepting the religion of FREE LOVE…. He laughed like a lion with a sliver in its paw. 'You areabsolutelythe best COUNTERFEIT in circulation that I know of!' he guffawed. 'Well, I'm going to fire Syvorotka and put you in charge of a little FIRING SQUAD when we get to our camping ground at Ekaterinburg!' were his exact words, half whispered, half insinuated and wholly growled across the table in the diner…. With assumed hostility I actually barked: 'The dirtier the deviltry the more diverting!'… He opened his eyes widely like one emerging from a solemn drunk and WINKED knowingly as he shook my hand…. 'You know where Kerensky got his orders to release our fellows, of course,' he whispered. 'I guess you KNOW why he sentsome peopleto Ekaterinburg a couple of days before the Czecho-Slovaks are scheduled totakeit, and I guess you know too how it happened that so many MOTOR TRUCKS came all the way from Archangel to Ekaterinburg so as to be on hand when a certain Indian officer shows up, the ridiculous ranter raved…. But…."
"… If these lines should ever come to light I want to record right now, in justice to that apparently besotted creature, that I am under unutterable obligations to him for assigning to me the most diabolical piece of brutality that has been conceived during this period of moral leprosy and unrepenting malevolence….I shall do my work well."
22. Then the following odds and ends appear:
"… The Métropole performer is a Baroness sure enough…. She knows a Syvorotka but declines to give his rank or whereabouts…. She tells me that this place was founded by Count Tatischshev in 1721 … when Catherine was a baby…. The Monastery of 'Our Lady of Tikhvin' looming up before me is a very graceful compliment to the Mosque of St. Sophia it resembles in so many ways…. fine place to radio from to friends at Odessa … especially if the NUN has been obeying orders…. Lvov is out of the way, over in the city prison,cooking, where he can't betray the prisoners at Ipatiev's…. When I was alone with my Imperial prisoner I tore the patch off from my shirt sleeve and handed it to him…. 'Sa lettre!' he exclaimed in an undertone…. His manner was exceedingly polite…. 'Ouvrez, lisez,' I advised…. 'Oui, oui, je sais! je sais!' he said softly, 'mais malheureusement cela est impossible!'… 'Soak it in water', I replied…. 'Et vous, monsieur,êtes-vous américain ou français?' he came back…. 'Je suis né a Paris, mais je suis américain, and if the prisoner has no objection I'd rather speak in English.'… 'That will be delightful,' he said; 'I shall do as you say.'… He ran back to the bathroom. In a moment he returned holding the patch up before him…. 'Ah!' he continued aloud, 'this merely says that the Heir Apparent will make a cruise of the world in a man-of-war; what does that signify?'… 'If you recognize the writing,' I replied, 'you will, doubtless, remember the methods of its author when extending an invitation.'… 'Yes, yes, I see; how clever of you! Had you been a subject of mine I should have made you an ambassador!'… 'That would imply infinite wisdom on my part,Sire!I bowed very humbly…. It made a hit with my prisoner."
This entry follows:
"Alice will give up her wheel chair when the NUN gives the word … she is worrying about my prisoner's sister, Olga, and her two companions, who insist on offering their services to the poor in the Crimea … and well she may!… 'Facing the East,'they are likely to travelsouth!… I must get rid of this old valet,Parafine Domino, who makes a nuisance of himself hovering around my prisoner like a hawk…. Gallipoli says he'll get rid of Alice's physician before the TENTS arrive,—substituting a fake doctor from the Red Guard, who'll tell me when the prisoners are fit to travel…. As 'Captain' of this Soviet Guard I am as cold-blooded as Gallipoli before the spies and hangers-on…. 'Captain?'… that title seems to stump the old Russian soldiers,—they claim that there is no such animal…. The Sergeant has suggested that I put the prisoners under a SMALL GUARD when we take them to the Ural District Soviet Court of Workmen…. Nice trap to catch me…. If I agreed to this I'd be in the same category as Denikin or Dutov or Ekhart and be shot by the gang outside bymistake, so as to fulfill the prophecy of my lady of Buckingham…. My answer was to order the guard on the balcony to keep their guns pointed at the prisoners whenever they appear in the garden … this will satisfy the eavesdropper in the red brick across the way and scare the wits out of old Parafine, besides giving him something to talk about when we get away…. To satisfy that suspicious Sergeant that there is no Japanese money secreted by the prisoners I have ordered my men to use their bayonets against the walls and ceilings … even the frame of the bathroom is not to escape!… Gallipoli is growling around that I'm doing my work too damned well toseem reasonable!… The poor boob! His idea of beingreasonableseems to consist in spreading rumors that the prisoners have been disposed of in a dozen different ways…. When Maria and Tatiana mounted the truck in the yard this confiding swaggerer started the gossip that they were being loaded up to be taken out of town and shot…. Now I am told by some of the excited guard that that report is TRUE because they heard some one in the attic of the red brick yelling: 'The baggage is at the station!'…
"When I asked them what we wanted with 'BAGGAGE' they went away growling that I wasn't playing fair!… To my somber-robed lady of Buckingham, who seems to have deserted me, as well as the slender guard at the Huis ten Bosch, as well as those at the Wilhelmstrasse and Odessa, who are part of this 'BAGGAGE,' my guard's agitation will assume the humorous character of unconscious prophecy…. Suspicion is in the air!… This undisciplined gang of cutthroats under that half-baked Sergeant are demanding HOSTAGES frommeformyconduct of this business … they want 'the Grand Dutchess Olga,' her two companions, and FIFTY other women!… AT LAST!… theplanes are buzzing in the sky…. The Ikon of Holy Nicholas is being wrapped up…. The NUN has copies of the letters to Oldenburg and Gendrikov…. It's time to say to my prisoner:Come with ME to the U.D.S. of W.A.R.A.D.'…. If he has the code from Odessa he will ask: 'Are you taking me to be shot?'… 'RUNMOBS'…. I'll have the guard go through his pockets to find the letters that'll turn him over to my 'vengeance' … then for Ekhart's tunnel and OBLIVION!"
23. Then this entry follows. It seems to be sufficiently circumstantial to justify its reproduction here:
"Murder, like jealousy, in this country is a disease," begins the narrative. "My part in this international murder will paralyze the politician and mystify the sober mind of intelligent belief…. History will not be satisfied, however, without a VICTIM, and I must furnish a victim that will satisfy the mob outside!… The Order has been given…. There are celebrations among the banditti…. there are moistened eyes among many peasants; there are strong men and gallant men among the gang out yonder whose very looks betray the HATRED they entertain for the suspectedexecutionerof their former ruler and his excited family…. They fear, they try to avoid me; and I can see in their looks that, given a favorable opportunity, theywill hang me to the highest electric wire polein the city!…
"I am not so certain, though, that EVERYONE outside will accept my theatric 'slaughter' as the Gospel truth.
"Diagonally across the way there has been a Red Cross nurse eternally peeking through her window in this direction…. If we go out into the courtyard she can see us plainly behind the other buildings, for there is nothing to obstruct her vision…. and she seems mighty anxious to keep tab on all proceedings in the yard…. I have tried to figure out a resemblance between this nurse and the capricious Métropole Baroness, but the nurseseemsmuch older…. Perhaps she is disguised…. If she ever reveals her identity she will remember me as the man who tippedmycap to her after posting the two sentries in front of the palisade between the telephone poles and the British Consulate…. If she remembers me she will also recall the drillings I gave my awkward squad for the few days I kept them parading after my prisoners in the yard…. and if anything happens to me she will KNOW that I did my job well up to the minute I write this…. In a few hours more the future political history of the world may be changed forever…. To blot outsevenlives is all….Dokónchet the Romanoffs!"
23. This entry follows:
"To satisfy the mob I had to perform a very unpleasantduty…. I use the word duty advisedly, remembering the instructions I committed to memory in the underground office of the Wilhelmstrasse …. Knowing that I am continually WATCHED and spied upon, not only by that nurse in the window over there, but by a number of crazed lunatics in uniform, I was compelled to treat a very pretty Princessshamefully…. News was spread yesterday that Japan had loaned Siberia $250,000,000, and the mob was clamoring for the jewels of the prisoners. This unoffending Princess—this girl, hardly more than seventeen—was holding a conversation in French with her brother Alexis, a little lad of fourteen, in the courtyard. The boy was pale and emaciated from abuse, solitude and confinement. The Princess, a radiant beauty under this hot July sun, was trying to cheer Alexis up. Her gown was badly soiled and of a simple soft material that seemed to accentuate her modest resignation and glorify her courageous cheerfulness in gloom. Her three older sisters, in gowns that spoke of yesterdays, were walking moodily down the path, when a crowd of ruffians burst by the sentries, tore through the doors, and dashed into the yard in the direction of the startled girls…. Taking in the situation quickly, I raised my voice and began swearing like a demon, and prancing around like askbernymadman…. Then rushing up to Tatiana I TORE FROM HER EARS the jewels that had descended from her early ancestors and howled: 'Aha! you'll wear those cursed things, will you, when your betters are starving in the gutters! Get back, all of you, into your Ipatiev SEPULCHRE and get me ALL the jewelry in the place orI'll turn these men loose upon youin three quarters of an hour!… Soldiers,—attention!!'… The mob crawled into line…. 'The next time any of you men come into this yard without any orders,' I said, I'll have you SHOT WITH THESE PEOPLE IN THE MANSION!… Column right!… March!'… I heard them mumbling as they passed the first sentry that the cursed interlopingtovarestchintended tokeep all the loot!'…. Following Alexis and his sisters into the ex-Emperor's study I laid down the earrings upon the flat-topped desk and apologized for my apparent act of cowardice and cruelty….
"There was pathos in that father's soft and courteous voice as he looked at me and said: 'Iunderstand,—yes, yes, I know. You are right—quite right. My darlings, you must not blame this man.'"
24. This entry follows:
"I must jot this down now—who knows what may happen?… Reminding the family that I had promised results in three quarters of an hour, I instructed them in the part each one must take…. Alexis appeared to be listlessly unconcerned and sat upon one corner of the large flat-topped desk, swinging his feet indifferently; but when I started for the door he sprang to attention like a well-trained soldier and awaited the results…. Going to the door fronting in the main street, I called the sentry and ordered him to CALL OUT THE GUARD…. Shortlymy selectedguard appeared….
"I conducted them through the dining room and told them to help themselves…. Then we roamed through the living rooms, the boudoirs, straight through to the washing room and bath; then back through the oblong archway into the little square room beyond the study, where I halted them and said: 'Men, these women will die before they'll tell us where the treasure is at present. The OLD MAN and WOMAN seem utterly indifferent to their fate; we can getnothingout of them. Now, what do you say to giving them a night to think the matter over before weline them up? We may get more by waiting than by closing their mouths FOREVER….'
"'Not another day!' said one of the men whom I had all along suspected of beingsuspiciousof MY conduct…. 'What say the rest of you?' I asked…. 'Well,' droned the most courageous of them, with a hangdog expression, 'we might give them until midnight.'… 'Very well,' I snapped viciously, I'LL PUT OFF THE EXECUTION till that hour; then if they don't disgorge I'll kill every one of themmyself!'… 'Not so fast, comrade!' returned the rebellious one; as a member of the guard I believeI'll keep you company.'
"… I knew better than to object…. That man is a cutthroat beyond redemption and will hesitate at nothing to satisfy his lust…. That'll befine,' I rejoined; 'YOU STAY WITH ME; the rest of the men are dismissed!'… when the men disappeared I made a run and jump at my diabolical 'comrade' and struck him squarely on the nose. Then I smashed him on the mouth, and, with a down drive of my left, I bored into the pit of his stomach and sent him sprawling on the carpet, where he BLED as profusely as a corn-fed bull…. This blood was exactly what I wanted, and in my anxiety to make a good job of it I kicked him several times in the face until he lay there, motionless and senseless, bleeding from every gash…. In the joy of giving this remorseless bully what he needed to overcome his pride I OVERLOOKED ENTIRELY THE PROPRIETY OF MAKING HIM BLEED IN ALL THE OTHER ROOMS…. This little oversight may cost me a well-earned reputation for efficient management I have hitherto enjoyed among many great men of our times, if the omission be detected by some enterprising commission, some journalist or SERVICE man who will certainly check up my report if I leave this place alive…."
25. This entry follows:
"It was a long wait till midnight when the mob outside expected to be invited to a division of the spoils…. but my plans were taking shape gradually as the moments slipped away…. In this isolated, though nicely furnished and elegant two-story dwelling, I got closer to the heart of my celebrated prisoner and his family than any other man alive…. In the few hours left to us before the time set for their 'execution'—in these evening shadows of July, 1918,—we have been discussing the effect of THEIR SACRIFICE upon the history of the world…. I put this down from memory:
"'It is understood already in certain chancellories,' my prisoner significantly replied, 'how my execution will be publicly accounted for…. Each Ministry will appoint a Commission, suggested by the Crown, to investigate and publish its own report…. The report published will be given out under the name of a Naval or Military Commission to impart an official sanction to the supposed inquiry and support the authenticity of the document agreed upon…. Naturally these prearranged reports will vary so as to satisfy the state of mind in each particular country.'… 'If regicides are so easily arranged,' I observed cautiously, 'perhaps the duration of this "Revolution" is also definitely determined?'… There'll be a period of revolution and distress,' my prisoner remarked, 'before our country settles down to industry and contentment. But the desire of "self-determination" will mislead the unfortunate and cause them to embrace a tyranny of the most cruel and selfish type. This will last for a time until gluttony destroys itself, as all excesses do. When the country is dismembered by the activities of rival greeds, my poor and honest peasants will turn upon their masters and restore this nation's power. They need but education to accomplish glorious results. They will obtain this education while they suffer and evolve a science of self-government while learning to govern themselves. It may seem strange to others when I say so; but not one of my whole family is covetous of the Imperial Crown. We prefer peace and liberty to all the pomp and penalties of Royal isolation from the rest of men and women in the world. Royalty means SLAVERY of the most humiliating form. The boy or girl that is doomed to Royal birth steps into a prison with the first breath he breathes…. Take my own case; I longed to get out and play rough-and-tumble with the boys I saw staring at me in the streets. But I was taught by my English tutor, Heath, that it would be lowering my dignity to associate with those fine young boys. My "dignity" was placed in a strait-jacket and, in a namby-pamby way, I was taught to play ALONE. I had cousins scattered over Europe who took their lot more happily than I; but even they regretted the mocking barriers that laid down a barrage between us and the more fortunate chaps outside,—outside, they enjoyed FREEDOM,—within, we were ALL prisoners in our little cells of etiquette and traditionary bondage. At fifteen I was dragged away to the Military Academy at Petrograd[A] and made to listen to old Danilovich until I actually hated the very name of war. I resolved at that time to inaugurate some means to get rid of such senseless waste of life if intrusted with the power. The Hague was my interpretation of what should constitute a proper exercise of international obligation. You realize, of course, the precarious state of Russia in a military sense,—while force was indispensable to hold us all together from within, it always exposed our weakness when directed toward external issues. I could not map out my own general education, even; forced by the traditions of my family I was placed in charge of the Holy Synod and taught by Pobedonostzev to regard myself as the source of SPIRITUAL POWER and instructed to regard an unorthodox opinion as a transportation offense. Now, while I reverence profoundly the sacred tenets of my holy religion, I regard religious freedom as indispensable to the dignity of spiritual belief. For that reason I made that reformation in 1905. As I grew up I rebelled against my intolerable confinement,—I went out among the PEOPLE and TALKED WITH THEM. They were friendly in most instances and gave me very good advice. I did not need a bodyguard to go about. I was as safe among the people as I would be in the Winter Palace. Often have I walked to the hotels alone to call on some particular friend without any thought of fear. Nor was it necessary,—I liked the people as genuinely as I believe they respected me. I learned their hunger for land by going around; and it was on that account that I projected and completed our Siberian Railways so as to give our people the coveted opportunity and an outlet to the markets of the world. Given an opportunity to accumulate and prosper, men will hesitate about going to war unless THEY ARE MISLED. I saw such an opportunity in international trade. I visited the Orient, extensively investigating the commercial field in that direction. It was a mighty task, necessitating a reference to others who should have been as much interested in the accomplishment as I was myself. Their mistakes have made me quite unhappy and there has always been CONTENTION between my Ministers and myself. If Witte had kept his hands off when Count Solsky got after the plotting school teachers and rebellious students, the propaganda against my reign which has honeycombed the Empire with sedition might have been checked in time to prevent this dissolution,—for it is more than a "revolution." It is idealism run amuck. France, England, the people of America, have been duped by the intelligentia—the Kadets—who never seemed to realize that in order to hold this Empire together not only FORCE but SUPERSTITION was required,—'si mundus vult decipi decipiatur,' it is the only principle that will hold unorganized ignorance in disciplinary subjection to orderly and regulated progress; and without this discipline the ARMY, or the power that holds this incongruous Nation together, will dissolve, as you may now see, while the whole Empire will fly to pieces. My strong Ministers were too physical and myopic to look beyond their noses. They were afraid to seem afraid oftruth,—and they even accused me of plotting with Kazantsev and Feodorov against the life of my Minister of Finance,—always excuses for fomenting discontent! They never seemed to realize that the HAPPINESS of the PEOPLE meant the SECURITY of the CROWN. As a matter of fact the only loyal supporters I ever had around me were my wife and family besides a few others in the service of the State. When I announced my war aims on the Pacific for the benefit of my people my leading Minister had the audacity to obtrude upon my privacy at Tsarskoye Selo and demand that I withdraw the manifesto. This piece of impudence cost me the decision in that war. That magniloquent Minister, with his versatile Irish amanuensis, not only turned my mother against me, but he had the temerity to demand that I dismiss my best agent, Azeff, who alone kept me advised of the machinations of the Social Revolutionists, who, in turn, accused me of murdering my uncle Sergius—the greatest theologian of the age. As I recall the time, now, I am, of course, convinced that the onlyreal friendI had among those Social Revolutionists was BURTZEV,—but I understood him too late!'… My prisoner spoke regretfully. His voice was soft and courteous, breaking at times into the altisonance of the tragic muse. He does not think that any act of his can be wrong; the mere fact that HE ran counter to accepted standards divests, in his mind, the act itself of turpitude. That seems to be the way he looked upon his former Eastern encrouchments. That's the way he justified his subterranean deals with the KAISER; and he even goes so far as to assert that 'if the Vyborg-Björkesund treaty had not been denounced the present war would not have happened.' He speaks of this a little passionately, scorning the very memory of Count Witte for 'questioning the morality of that arrangement.' That great Minister my prisoner refers to as 'an uncouth bully who bellowed like a mad bull.' In this respect it is my impression that the ex-Empress indorses his state of mind. What he likes she will place in the superlative; what he merely hates,sheelevates to positive abhorrence. In this way she seems to flatter his decisions, which makes him smile quite indulgently at her, and hold her ascendency over his apparently veering mind. I can notice this in so many little things: She oozes delicate flattery and he likes it; she plays upon hisprejudices, and he seems to have a lot of them submerged beneath his inalienable urbanity and instinctive grace of manner that even this misery and abysmal gloom have not relieved of polish. Beneath it all I get the impression that he is very much in love with every member of his family…. that he would like to bealonewith 'Alice,' whom he addresses as 'my darling' and experiences a shell-shock if she stubs her toe. His final words are: 'Now it is ALL OVER and I WILL WELCOME THE OBLIVION that will release us all from the memory of our devoted bondage!'… While my prisoner conversed Alexis assisted his stately mother and his four beautiful sisters while putting on their superannuated wraps…. One by one they filed out the door leading into the open yard…. My prisoner stood up and stretched himself…. He was about to resume his seat when the report of a revolver resounded in our ears…. The brute on the floor, wallowing in his blood, was raised upon his elbows and firing recklessly…. After he had fired six rounds without apparent injury I drew my own revolver and fired deliberately INTO THE WALL…. The fellow slunk back to silence…. My prisoner and I followed the ladies out into the night,forgettinga jewel or two in our leisurely departure…. Out in the open WE DESCENDED into the old abandoned tunnel that formerly led from Ipatievs to the medical office of a foreign consulate a thousand feet away…."
[Footnote A: Nicholas used "Petrograd," not the German nomenclature.]
26. The next entry is mystifying:
"We are between the devil and the deep sea!… which gives me time to write…. The beastly tunnel has caved in midway in our passage…. It seems, from the roar overhead, that we are somewhere beneath the railroad tracks. Yet there must be a vent somewhere, as there seems to be a draft of air through this passage…. The family are congregated off to the right, in a kind of stoping where the dirt has been removed, leaving a small room like one meets with in the Gogebic iron mines in Wisconsin and Michigan, back in the United States…. Our little electric bull's-eyes come in handy just now…. With my bull's-eye propped up on a sand-encrusted box I am noting down some things that must not be forgotten…. While trying to find a passageway out of this hole in the ground we gyrated back and forth for the last two or three hours until the women became exhausted…. Then my 'prisoner' and I returned to the mouth of the entrance. There we heard a horrible row between the unruly brute we left on the floor and his wild-eyed fellow conspirators…. They accused him of DOUBLE-CROSSING THEM and making away with the treasure that they insisted should betheirs!
"… He insisted that there was NO treasure EXCEPT the JEWEL he apparently was exhibiting…. We could hear, quite distinctly, a sullen voice saying: 'I do not believe you; you are trying to steal the whole of it!… We'll give you ten minutes to produce ALL you have hid away, and if you don't do it, we'll fill your body so full of lead that your rotten carcass won't float in the Kolunda.'… The culprit replied: 'Let me explain. You remember that I was suspecting thatinterloperwhen I insisted on watching him; well, my suspicions were correct,—he was a TRAITOR to our cause. He was planning to steal away with his precious gang when I covered them with my pistol. Then when I had the drop on them I made them open all of their trunks and boxes. Nothing was found. I felt sure they were holding out on me, so I took a shot at the kid. The interloper made a dive at me. I knocked him down with that chair there…. then in my rage I emptied my pistol into the hearts of the whole gang…. that's all there's to it.'… 'He's lying!' 'Traitor!' 'Betrayer!' 'Down with the thief!' flew back and forth from one to another above our heads…. Then in a more subdued voice we heard 'Hist!Silence! Some one is coming!' A moment later I heard distinctly the unmistakable growl of my hero of Gallipoli overhead demanding, 'WHAT HAVE YOU CUTTHROATS DONE WITH OUR PRISONERS?' … There was asilencethat could be felt…. None offered an explanation that I could hear…. 'Why don't you answer?' thundered Gallipoli…. There was an unmistakable murmur…. 'Don't YOU try to slide out of this, you COWARD! I'll holdevery oneof you responsible for this!Where's my lieutenant?'… HemeansME….
"'Out in the yard,' I heard one of them reply…. 'Go and tell him to report here AT ONCE!'… Poor devil! the humor of this whole situation is displayed in the tragic possibilities of criminal greed when crooks fall out!… 'Where are the others?' my Gallipoli hero demanded…. I heard no answer…. 'DO YOU HEAR ME?'… still no audible answer…. 'Crack!'…. the report of a revolver, then a scuffling and 'stand back!Another move and I'll blow you ALL to HELL,—line up there!…. Now I order you to explain the whereabouts of the PRISONERS.'
"… We could hear a voice boasting: 'Did you see that BLOOD in yonder? Well, that is our answer. We were suspicious of that Lieutenant of yours so we took the matter into our own hands.'… 'WHO DID THE KILLING?'… 'The Sergeant.'… 'And what did he DO with the bodies?'… 'Threw them into the well!'… 'The devil! you'll have to fish them out again!'… Then there was a long silence…. Finally we heard: 'Here, Sergeant!' from HE of Gallipoli; 'when will my lieutenant report?'… 'The Captain said to present his compliments and say that he is temporarily detained.'… My 'prisoner' poked me in the ribs impulsively and smiled…. 'Where are the BODIES?'… 'Burned!' said the Sergeant. 'WHAT?'… 'BURNED UP?… 'Who burned them?'… 'I did, Sir.'… 'Didn't throw them in the well?'… 'No, Sir.'… 'Well, I'll be damned!… FALL IN!Unless those prisoners are produced I'll court-martial every one of you!'
"… We could hear the measured tread of a squad overhead tramping away until the thump, thump, thumping sank into a faint indistinct vibration which was caught up by the beating of our hearts and the throbbing of our fascinated and incredulous ears…. 'Well!' ejaculated my amused 'prisoner'; 'It'll be exceedingly interesting to read the future accounts of my double execution. I am sure my family will read it with greater interest than they've ever manifested in any of London's or Gorky's fanciful novels!'… 'I assume that you will not be surprised to learn that you have some mighty good friends in that crowd outside,' I ventured…. 'Oh, not at all,' my prisoner returned, 'and I venture to say that your friend from Gallipoli will find it convenient to contribute to the general misunderstanding and confusion by allowing the suspected executioners to air their conflicting explanations of my disappearance.'
"'We haven't disappeared yet, my friend!' I grumbled, as we turned back in the direction of our underground camp…. 'If we had some shovels it would solve the problem; but the way we're fixed it looks like a case of starvation or surrender for the whole of us,—we can't stay down here indefinitely!'… 'Patience,courage, my friend,' my 'prisoner' replied whole-heartedly; 'this is the first time in my life I have been absolutely alone, the first moment in our lives we have been positively FREE!'… He took a few swift steps and swung around gracefully, like a figure in a dance…. 'I love the mazurka!' he exclaimed!… 'I'd like to have a real pillow fight again with the children!… We used to have such fun!… It was about the only time my wife would ever smile!… I used to tell her that she reminded me of the sad goddesses that stood on the dull red cornices of my Winter Palace looking coldly into space during any of the Court ceremonies…. Really that was true,—a woman like my wife, in amanteau de cour,a head flaming with the rays of her kokoshnik and supported by that long white veil, DOES resemble an icicle in the Winter Palace!… But when we arealone!… the Zaritsa is a motherly MOTHER!… You'll see…. We have always loved simplicity…. This is our chance…. I never did like the late suppers and high life indulged in by some of my relations…. My greatest dissipation was at the Marinsky when we'd sup between acts and go straight home to bed…. Grand Duke Alexis never wanted to go to bed…. After the theatre he was always primed for another party out at the Islands…. Our motto has always been, "Early to bed and early to rise."… Had to…. At work early after breakfast till eleven … luncheon … to work again at half past twelve until dinner … back to work until very late at night…. NOW we are hearing of our misguidedworkmen and soldiersattempting to run the country on SIX HOURS WORK A DAY!… That would be delightful if they would only devote the remaining hours to recreation and STUDY.'… My 'prisoner' seemed positivelyboyish….
"His voice was in pleasant contrast to the shrill staccato accents I had heard in that gloomy underground room of the Foreign Office at Berlin…. I could see at a glance that his present attitude was not a pose,—his simplicity, like his courage and democracy, was GENUINE…. It explains the reason for his composure at THIS VERY MINUTE when a less courageous man would be excitedly running around in circles and making my life miserable by bemoaning our ill luck…. To show themoraleof this family of cave dwellers I'll record this incident: 'Be careful about those electric lamps,' I requested of the ladies. 'If they give out we'll be in darkness.' … 'Then we'll use our hands and dig ourselves out to daylight!' exclaimed Maria…. 'WHY can't we start doing THAT NOW?' exclaimed Tatiana…. 'Come on!' chorused Alexis and his four sisters as they fell to and are now pawing the dirt away from the embankment that impedes our escape…. I'll have to supervise that work a little, for if these girls continue to pile back the dirt the way they are doing it they may stop up the passage both ways andbury us all alive…."
28. The next page of the diary is badly blurred and torn, but the following can be made out:
"We are all about played out…. The boy is exhausted and lying over in a little excavation upon his sisters' wraps, his fingers bleeding and one eye blinded with the sand…. The passageway behind us is almost closed up…. In front of us we have hit a solid wall…. The exhausted mother is binding her boy's hands with a portion of her petticoat…. As she kneels there, with the faint flicker of a light falling on her finely chiseled profile, she resembles Botticelli'smagnificentMadonna in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence…. The picture is completed by the dark background and the solicitous attitude of the girls as they cluster around the sufferer…. With a little imagination one can delineate the jeweled crown which the two girlish angels are holding above her head…. Pathos, resignation and a sort of recreating FAITH are painted against that threatening wall and overhanging dirt…. If that should fall WE ARE ALL BOUND TO SUFFOCATE before any help can come…. My 'prisoner' is not a bit discouraged, however…. He is using his jackknife against the concrete wall with great patience and whistling softly and slowly an air from 'The Blessing of the Waters.'… WATER!… I know those girls are CHOKING for a drink as I have been for the last ten hours myself…. Still, not one of them has murmured at our grief and Anastasie has become quite chummy in pretending to cheer ME up…. Aristocracy or Royalty, even, with Democracy in a tunnel, makes us ALL of one size! Under certain conditions a man of my education and family connections MIGHT be privileged to forget the veiled lady of Buckingham and accept these endearing little attentions with some guarantee of hope…. But WHAT IF WE ALL ARE BURIED HERE like the happy families of Herculaneum and Pompeii?… Future inquisitive scientists may find this diary with ourbonesand classify us as a species of an extinct Tartar tribe!… The wall my prisoner is gouging outseems to be getting wet…."
29. Then there follows the entry:
"Water has burst through the hole my prisoner has been making in that wall!…"
30. The next entry has been evidently water-soaked and is entirely blotted out.
31. This entry seems sufficiently distinct to make out what the writer has been through:
"I tried in the foregoing to jot down enough of what was happening to enable anyone who would find our bodies to make out how we had died…. What I forgot to record in the excitement I'll put down now…. When the wall caved in and the water burst down upon us it seemed that we would soon be drowned alive…. The small hole in the wall had allowed enough water to filter through at first to slake our thirst and make us all quite happy…. But gradually the ground beneath us became damp and sticky and the blue mud clung to our shoes like glue until we could hardly move…. The little air that crept in with the water, though, was a positive blessing to us all…. We should have stifled…. Finally the water ceased and our hearts began to sink….
"… It was Maria who brought on the FLOOD I have learned today…. With a stone she found uncovered by the filtering from the little opening she began pounding against the wall…. Suddenly the wall bulged inward…. There was a swish, and a roar, and a deadening GUSH,—and then a RUSHING FLOOD tore open the side of the wall and burst like a torrent into our muddy, narrow cell. Higher and higher it mounted, enveloping us to our arm pits…. My 'prisoner' moved calmly over to the stately woman, who was holding up the boy, and patted her gently on the head. 'It will be all right, darling,' he said…. Then he kissed all his children and impulsivelydashed in the direction of the cataract.
"… Struggling hard against the flood he worked his way nearer and nearer toward the broken curbing and finally DOVE through the waterspout and clung grimly to the wall…. For a moment his body seemed to tremble…. Then with a supreme effort he pulled his body into the opening and for a moment checked the flood…. It seemed like a gallant sacrifice…. at the same time…. the girl, Maria, waded back toward the opening that was NOW completely SEALED BY THE STICKY CLAY and began to tear frantically at the bank….
"Little by little she seemed to make headway…. But it appeared like an eternity,—and I felt certain that the man in the wall using his body as a plug must presently give up the ghost and be hurled back into our cell…. I then noticed the water around us DROP quickly, and, turning in the direction of Maria I saw her body being caught up by the current and sucked painfully forward into the opening her delicate hands had made…. It was too horrible to endure!… Now, while there is no blood of martyrs in my veins, and while I had PROMISED the sombre figure in Berlin TO DO A CERTAIN THING which a martyr impulse might prevent if I tried to be a hero in this instance, I simply could not look at that girl's struggles without going to her rescueno matter what it cost…."
32. The following then appears:
"I have no recollection of what happened after I grasped Maria by the feet…. All I remember is that I felt myself being dragged along after her through a blinding sheet of muddy, gritty substance, head foremost like a drowning man…. I imagined myself in mid-ocean clinging to some broken shaft after my vessel had been torpedoed, and I clung to those slender ankles as the only hope of life!… When I did recover there was Maria bending over me and vigorously see-sawing my arms back and forth in an effort to resuscitate me…. If ever there were an excuse for the chivalry of the Middle Ages it must have crept out of those dark moments when some puissant knight opened his tired eyelids upon a vision such as I then beheld!… But there was no time for Don Quixoting in that damp and muddy tunnel…. We noticed that the waters neither rose nor fell…. So we plowed our way back to the other members of our party as speedily as we could…. On arriving at the wall again we found my 'prisoner' lying propped up against a large slab of concrete and breathing heavily while he held the Empress' hand and essayed a feeble smile…."
33. The following entry seems to dovetail in:
"The walls of this oldcisternpromise very little assurance for our escape…. Still the cistern has its uses in circumstances like these…. We KNOW, at least, that some kind of human beings are not beyond our voices if we decide to call for help…. But WHAT KIND of help?… That is the question…. Last night, as I stood on the floor of the cistern I heard an amusing conversation…. A voice overhead was growling; 'I'm as certain as I'm alive that the loan of $250,000,000 has been made by Japan to those fiends who have escaped,—and I KNOW they have the GOLD, for why have those trucks disappeared?… so it is worth while to keep up this revolution until we get our hands on some of it if we have to follow them all the way to Vladivostok.'… 'That rumor has been floating around for the past week,' another bass voice grumbled, 'and I'm inclined to think it is all a game of bunko to divert attention from the pile of 600,000,000 the gang have smuggled into Omsk.'… 'Nonsense,' grunted the other; 'haven't we a thousand eyes at Harbin who know about the Chinese Eastern deal?'… 'Well, the only thing to do is to keep this hell in a constant bubble until we get the stuff at Omsk or the coin Japan has sent to this CREMATED FAMILY here!'…
"… 'Cremated, Ha! Ha!… why, did you notice those stoves in the house?… They're not big enough to burn up a good-sized dog!… My judgment tells me that that whole squad of double-crossers are in league with that skunk of a "Captain" who pretended to be a friend of Comrade Trotsky.'… 'Well, we made a mistake when we endorsed that BURNING lie,—we are ALL in for it NOW, and the only way to get out of it is to STAY IN IT and lie it out to the end—'…. 'UNLESS—' 'Unless what?'… 'Unless the Lett who pretended to do the killing is taken out and SHOT!'… 'Oh, give him a little more rope and he'll hang himself!'… When I related this conversation to my 'prisoner' he was very much amused…. 'This is a real adventure!' he smiled. 'We're like Tennyson's Light Brigade, with cannons in front, and cannons behind us and brigands on every side of us, thirsting for our blood,—these fellows are certainly not Russians!'…"
34. Then we have this entry:
"I have noticed all day that the family is gradually succumbing to the ravages of hunger and thirst…. If we call for help it will mean a FIRING SQUAD for sure…. The criminal crew who have already reported our death will HAVE to KILL us to make good their boast…. So we must stay here and silently watch one another collapse from day to day….
"… My prisoner says he is willing to give himself up if his death will enable the rest of us to escape…. The girls will not listen to such a proposition,—they are all agreed that they would rather organize themselves into a little platoon and FIGHT IT OUT if we can ever get out of this cistern…. It indicates a mighty good spirit,—but that gang outside would have us strung up in the twinkling of an eye….
"… I KNOW that Marie expects ME to do something from the inquiring way she gazes in my eyes…. She says nothing, but any man of spirit who looks into such clear, unflinching eyes under conditions such as these, will understand instinctively what is written in their suggestive depths!… They literally SHAME me for the little I can do…. Some lounge lizards may speculate on the nature of the sentiments this grateful princess will reveal if I display sufficient ingenuity to save us all from this slowly approaching DEATH!… How dramatic!… How absurd!
"… I have lately laughed at those Italian poets who bewail the isolation of their Lauras, yet, recalling my Lady Buckingham's repeated rescues, I begin to recognize a reason for the existence of that poetic fervor which agitates the artistic heart when either its safety or its vanity is at stake."…
35. This entry offers a little encouragement:
"There is no such thing as physical exhaustion…. Hunger and thirst may weight us down, but with the right kind of inspiration a man can do miraculous things…. I began rolling up balls of mud from the tunnel and carrying them into the cistern until my tongue hung out of my mouth…. With those balls I started making a winding stairway around the wall of this cistern until I had a dozen steps completed … then the girls began making the balls and bringing them in to me like muddy little hod-carriers…. My masonry took on proportions as the minutes dragged by…. Finally we have a stairway four feet wide and extending from the bottom to within four feet of the top as I write these lines with the girls sitting a few steps below me in the slowly hardening clay…. We can all hear plainly the tramping of feet on the planking overhead…. It is a kind of shuffling one hears when seated somewhere beneath the dancers in a ballroom, and it may mean that we are headed directly toward the LION'S DEN."…
36. In this entry the Emperor speaks of Rasputin, spooks and Jews:
"It became dark and spooky when our lights gave out…. and while we sat huddled together the subject of 'ghosts' came up…. 'Ghosts!' the 'prisoner' almost snarled; 'that reminds me of the Jewish propaganda against my Government…. There was hardly a Yiddish banker in the world who did not accuse ME personally of inspiring Sheglovitov to have the Jews executed forritualistic murder; and I am sure their influence will be very strong with certain statesmen and opportunists to have my Empire dismembered when the time comes to settle the terms of peace, as poor Nilus predicted…. I wish I could show you a letter I received from a Jewish banker in New York threatening to kill my loan in America and have our existing treaties denounced unless I complied with certain Jewish demands…. I did not think it possible and ignored the letter, of course…. You may judge of my astonishment when the Jew's threat was made good by the American Government doing precisely what the threat implied…. These people have been persistent in accusing ME of having communication with thespiritsand of engaging in all sorts ofmagic, like the infamous Papus; well, if that be so let me exercise my gifts to prophesy that the denationalized Jews will attempt to hereafter enthrone themselves as MASTERS of the civilized world by their mastery of its amusements, its money, its POLITICS and its industry,—and you will find them demanding and RECEIVING special privileges in many countries where, at present, they are suspected and abhorred…. I have not the slightest doubt but that Kerensky will be succeeded by some Jewish politician within a little while—and they will blacken his reputation as they have tried to blacken mine…. the methods may be different but the result will be none the less effectual…. Only the other day, I might say, WHEN WE WERE LEAVING TUMEN, a rabble of Yiddishsuttlersbeganyelling at ME: "Rasputin! Rasputin! where is your Rasputin!"… Now Grisha Rasputin was a friend of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Protopopov. He was seeking to redeem the reputation of a horse-stealing father if I remember right—'He was a friend of Stuermer, Niki, not a friend to you,' interrupted the ex-Empress… 'You are right, darling,' returned the 'prisoner,' 'quite right, I know.'… 'What kind of a mountebank was RASPUTIN?' I asked to feel my 'prisoner' out…. 'He was a worthlessrasputnikat best,' the fallen Emperor answered…. And you think the Jews are responsible for your reported attachment to him?' I asked…. 'Undoubtedly,' he said bitterly with a sigh of resignation…. 'When we were being taken to the boat at Tobolsk did they not make faces at me and Alice and flout me with their cries: "Take him to the Criminal Court and let him read the record of his libertine, Rasputin! Let his Barnabas teach him how to sin for the joy of gaining absolution!"… How little do those enfranchised Jews understand the meaning of forgiveness!' lamented the ex-Czar…. 'May I ask your actual estimate of creatures like Rasputin?' I ventured…. 'Our Rasputin was a hardened criminal beyond a doubt until his conversion by Father Zaborovsky, the good Rector at the Theological Academy at Tomsk,' the ex-Czar replied…. 'He would have made an excellent subject for investigation by Lombroso, by Havelock Ellis or other eminent criminologists … but I believed the man was sincere in his repentance and accepted him as a sort of text for other sinners to point a way toward regeneration…. The higher Rasputin rose, the greater his fame became, the more impressive would be his textual example to other aspiring souls,—even a criminal should not be denied the consolation of hope where crime is the result of ignorance or misdirected patriotism…. If I sinned in pardoning a sinner then sin must be an unpardonable crime!… Nathan treated David as I treated Rasputin, although both were guilty of the same offense…. He was grossly illiterate,—the only schooling he ever got was in the Monastery Abalaksky and what he acquired from the lips of monks while making his rounds as a barefoot pilgrim from place to place…. His claims of havingvisionsI ascribed to his empty stomach, although others gave credence to the nonsense…. Alice at first abhorred him; finally she began to regard him as a rare specimen in self-hypnosis who was worth studying to learn how far the fascinations of self-delusion were capable of deluding and swaying stronger wills and more cultivated minds…. We both learned, by observing him, that an ignorant mujik, like an egotistical Minister, if granted the semblance of authority for any length of time, will demoralize the finest organization in the world…. That was the lesson both Alice and I acquired from Rasputin…. And I am accepting Rasputin as a standard to estimate what will happen when men of his type and origin attempt the government of the world…. Without education, with no experience in governing even the smallest unit of society, unfamiliar with the trend of history, ignorant of military and commercial strategy, building their philosophy of life and their science of administration upon some isolated text, they will overturn the whole structure of civilization by arrogating to themselves the supernatural privileges and persuasiveness of the Voice of God!… The prospects are not inviting…. There are Rasputins in all the chancellories of Europe…. You have them in North and South America,—some educated, others like Marat and Danton, while some are simple Cagliostros who deceive the people and themselves…. If they were only Gideons instead of Joshuas their strategy might be reassuring,—but they are merely Rasputins and Papuses, after all!… Against all laws of nature they will try to triumph by commanding the heavenly and mundane bodies to stand still until they readjust the motions of civilized society to some dissolving and ruinous invention of emotional insanity where everything runs wild!'"
37. This entry is mystifying:
"Last night I waited until there was not a sound overhead…. I knew it would be taking chances—but I HAD TO GET WATER…. We could no longer survive on MUD!… I began pushing against the planking overhead to see if there was anywhere an opening, but every plank I pressed against seemed as solid as a stone sidewalk…. Finally I began thumping with my clenched fist … and this brought on the fracas…. I heard a heavy pair of feet bounding on the floor directly above my head…. Then there was a scraping and a sound like the tearing up of carpets…. Presently I heard an iron bolt crack back and the floor above my head began rising slowly until I found myself looking into the muzzle of a Mauser held in the clenched hands of a tall square-faced man with a jaw like a prize fighter….
"… Another pair of hands reached down and caught me by the collar and I was yanked like a squirming spaniel out of my hole into a large oblong room that was only slightly lighted by a blue student lamp upon a small roll-top desk…. Against the wall was a large steel engraving of King George of England, and I could see the Union Jack displayed upon another wall…. There were papers and documents and army tents in piles here and there round the room…. BUT THE IMPRESSION THAT FLASHED UPON ME was not at all reassuring for a man who had made his way into SUCH surroundings directly from the other underground corridor in Berlin!…"
38. Then this entry follows:
"From that very hour I AM STRONGLY FOR THE BRITISH…. I will not attempt to describe that MEAL…. It was all a King in Exile or any of his suite could ask for; and the silent men who prepared it will always be remembered for their discretion and manly hospitality…. Neither of them appeared to KNOW me NOR ANY OF OUR PARTY…. But those gallant fellows are adepts at dissimulation…. I'm certain that the tall, slender and soldierly bearing officer will remember the day we had our STRAWBERRIES at Carlton Terrace, and the slender, willowy Duchess who forgot her fan until he picked it up and brought it to her AT MY TABLE, where she paused for a moment to say to me, 'MY FATHER IS IN LONDON AND WISHES TO SEE YOU BADLY.'… I am certain he remembers what I told her about the Gordons and the Devons in that slaughter at the Somme,—when so few of those brave lads returned!… If we ever meet again I shall thank him for the robes and provisions and motor trucks he furnished to transport us safely rolled up in army tents for many rough miles across the country in the direction of CHANYI LAKE…."
39. We find this entry of the diarist next:
"I have never beheld a more beautiful landscape than the scene before me…. I am writing this on the banks of Altai Lake…. The balsam from the cone-like firs along the gorges surcharges the air with an intoxicating flavor and reflect their inverted gracefulness in the calm waters of the lake…. The mountains sloping up from either side are delineated in the mirroring surface and form an archway for the snow-capped and broken pinnacle that towers above the others like a sentinel brooding in his frosty and eternal isolation…. Far off in the distance I can see the black and white walls of the KATUN GLACIER and know that, throughout this region, gold and silver, as well as lead and copper, most certainly abound…. In our unending tramp today I have discovered many evidences of the presence of zinc and nickel and other minerals lying around…. My 'prisoner' tells me that there are mines already working in the upper part of the Talovsky River and that the copper runs very high in the vicinity of Chudak…. Alice wrote to Princess G—— today at T——…. I am NOT much impressed nor FAVORABLY by the attitude of these natives in the hills…. They seem to be a mongrel mixture of Tartar and Mongolian who are always ready, like the huge ungainly bears we have encountered in our pilgrimage, to grapple and devour one for the mere pleasure of seeing blood!… Maria seems quite interested in these notes,—today she insisted on giving me her impressions of how a NOVEL should be written…. She says that to make a story interesting it should be all movement from the opening line to the final wedding bells…. When I told her that I was writing HISTORY she pouted prettily and remarked: 'I never think of history without wondering WHO subsidized the writer of the misleading fairy tale.'
"… This girl has lived close enough to the source of history to know what PROPAGANDA is…. Still, I like her uncomplaining buoyancy of spirits in the trial we are going through…. We are headed SOUTH toward Kuria and Khotan, where arrangements have been made to receive us by some people who know our secret and will respect the rights of ASYLUM in a land where oblivion may mean liberty and love!…"
40. There seems to have been quite a skip in the notations of the diary. Evidently the diarist has become MORE INTERESTED in something else:
"The fact that we have been on FOREIGN SOIL during the last fifteen days has considerably relaxed our nerves…. Aside from the rumor constantly reaching us that the Mongolian mercenaries are in the employ of the Bolsheviki and offered BIG REWARDS for our capture, we have not been disturbed in mind or bodies…. Maria asked me today if I were any relation to CHARLES JAMES FOX, whose oratory she claims to greatly admire…. When I informed her that I had never met this gentleman her eyes grew very big….
"'What ARE you?' she inquired. 'Are you an Englishman, or a Russian,—you CAN NOT BE A GERMAN,—or ARE YOU AN AMERICAN? Oh, I just hope you ARE an AMERICAN!… When I informed her that my ancestors fought besideKosciuskoand Pulaski and that their names might be found on the muster rolls of the First Line Regiment of New York Colony and State, along with the names of Goose Van Schaick and Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, she burst her sides with laughter…. 'What a happy family you must have been!' she rippled. 'When a Fox and a Goose may dwell in peace and amity together there is nothing that is not possible for their race!'
"… This quick-witted girl, certainly, BELONGS in the UNITEDSTATES—the plains of Eastern Turkestan are NO place for her…."
41. There seems to be another skip in the neglected diary. Evidently the scenery has lost all its charms…. He merely notes:
"My 'prisoner' seems VERY MUCH interested in my family connections…. He seems jolly enough about it…. BUT I can see that something is DISTURBING him…. He is very obstinate in little things, lately…. When we get into Cashmere perhaps his mind will be diverted…. He loves the languid charm of scenic beauty nearly as much as the flattery of his wife…. Anyway, WHAT can I do?… There is a naturalness about this whole affair that one simply CAN'T get away from…. Danger has a generous way of bestowing blessings on the BOLD…"
42. Then we find the following critical entry: "I shall NEVER read 'Lalla Rookh' again!… The Vale of Cashmere may sound fine in poetry but it FEELS TOUGH beneath one's feet whenever one dismounts…. I might overlook the rough spots easily enough had not OLGA suddenly interested herself in my ANCESTRY while she found employment for Maria with her brother, who seems sadly out of breath…. My 'prisoner' has forgotten all about me in the absorbing interest he displays in what he declares to be EARLY MISSIONARY WORK OF JESUS in these very interesting stretches. It has been no easy matter for me to pilot this party outside the range of camel caravans and soldiers on their way from the Punjab Valley toward RAWAL PINDI…. The rattle of our tongas might be heard at any moment and then our little caravan, disguised as Buddhists, might spend some time in the GUARDHOUSE at Murree…. We will not regret the shade and comparative coolness of that pleasant Summer Resort,—but none of us are longing for any more confinement…. The road from Murree down the valley was gullied by the terrific rain we have been wading through…. I have never seen a blacker night nor a heavier rain than we have just come through… We were constantly in fear of the falling of those gigantic boulders that overhung our path behind the swishing trees that clung along the precipice…. The zigzag road that runs down this slope is like a spiral stair in crookedness and bumps…. We could catch a glimpse now and again of a light from the little bungalows that clung to the mountain sides…. But we dare not arouse the dwellers for many obvious reasons…. Finally we did encounter an abandoned inn or hut where we camped for the night…. Next morning in a fierce and searching sun we rambled into a village set upon a wonderful defile in the heart of the mountains, where we ate our frugal meal…. At night we reached the Jhelum coursing gracefully over rocky beds and through picturesque gorges that rise into the azure and serene skies of the Himalayan heavens…. It was a delightful place to camp for the night…. At nine the next morning we had reached the little hamlet strung along the river bank and known as Tongua…. Here the girls made a number of purchases and we replenished our commissary for the march before us into mystic dominions of the LAMA…."
43. Then we get this entry:
"I did not count the number of Hindu castes we encountered at the trading post of Tongua…. there were a hundred, at least, each bearing on his forehead the mani-colored mark of his particular caste,—while the stately Kashmirian in his snowy turban and long white tunic seemed carved out of the frozen snows of the towering mountain sides…. we were offered many cabriolets to assist us on our journey, but one look at one of those backless and circular TABLES between the wheels upon which one must sit like a Turkish mouker with his legs crossed to keep from rolling down the precipice was enough to convince us that the camel route was good enough for us.
"On the tramp to Horis, along the banks of the Jhelum with its wooded mountains on the right and its rocky precipices on the left, we met a number of pilgrims who had religious scruples against taking part in letting blood of any kind of bird or beast or whale…. They had evidently been to their Mecca…. Another thing we discovered that is not generally understood among the unelect…. On the way we came upon a Hindu squatting by the roadside with a pail of rich fresh milk…. Being thirsty I pointed at the pail and asked him for enough to give our party a drink…. The fellow became enraged and informed me that I had defiled his milk by pointing my finger at it…. I said I'd take it all, which was evidently what he wished.
"After we had all drunk our fill I took the half-filled pail, approached the grinning rascal and deliberately dashed the contents in his face!… My 'prisoner' was horrified, but Maria enjoyed it very much…. 'I had one experience in Japan,' my 'prisoner' confided, 'that has taught me never to oppose the local customs of a country no matter how absurd they may seem to others…. At that time one of my party poked fun at the peculiar art displayed in the statue of a Buddha…. The priest became enraged and attempted to split my head open when I was not looking…. Had it not been for my cousin I'm sure I would not be with you today!… You will please me much if you respect the ancient practices of these people.'…
"Then going to the dripping figure he laid a gold louis on the fellow's upturned palm,—HE SEEMED TO KNOW WHAT WAS COMING—which was proof to my mind that there is more in Yogi philosophy than has ever been let out….
"… Frankly, however, I suspect that my 'prisoner's' kindness has only whetted the appetite of that knave…. The way he looks at us would convict him in any court of justice that he meditates our murder…."
44. Then we have this entry:
"I am not at all mistaken in my estimate of that Hindu with the pail of defiled milk…. He is one of the renegade SPIES that hang on the brow of civilization and infest these retreats and mountain gorges in search of easy prey…. There are other POWERS above them that lounge in gilded palaces and seem always interested in the charms of lovely women who may suddenly DISAPPEAR…. I know the brood of vultures from Stamboul to the red lights of New York and the dens of Singapore!… The quicker we get down out of these mountains and into the populated valley on our way to Seranagur the SAFER I will feel…. It is all very pleasant to take a look at this silver ring that encircles the plateau with its eternal snows, to watch the sparkling waterfalls, the gardens and the dimpling lake with its little islands with cottages resting on them and to imagine one's self in the fairyland we used to read about as children,—BUT for a full-grown man, in my position andcharged with an important mission, I prefer to be on my way…. There are too many places where one may be accounted for as having fallen down the mountain side in the event of some sudden DISAPPEARANCE!"
45. By the initiated the following entry will not be misunderstood:
"It was an unlucky piece of folly that sent us in this direction halfway round the earth to a destination we could have reached in fifteen days…. On our way to Bombay where arrangements had been made to slip us quietly across the Peninsula and on to our permanent retreat, we were confronted with the information that people of my prisoner's nationality wereleavingBombayby request,—and henceourunheralded appearance might attract too much attention to be entirely satisfactory to the interests I was serving … How this information was conveyed to us I may jot down some later day…. But to make a note of it is sufficient for my purpose now … There are other wild beasts in these mountains besides panthers to account for the death of a man WHO KNOWS TOO MUCH.
"… Were it not for a positive FEELING of dread that has followed me since I threw milk into that Hindu's eyes, I should like to describe the many fascinating spots encountered in the embrace of a squalid and picturesque degeneracy…. I should linger with my brush over the opalescent lake and the sweet, calm repose of Seranagur with its purling river scouring the festooned landings and retiring abodes of tranquillity and ease,—I should like to jot down the scenes of bathers at their twilight dips when both sexes mingle as innocent as our First Parents were of a bathing costume and as devoutly fervent in their ablutions as the fabled Peris of this Paradise themselves. But there is a feeling in the air that some one is pursuing us and which cuts these memorandums short…."
46. "For purposes of self-protection I shall no longer jot down exactly our location," the next entry reads. I note merely that we are somewhere in Little Thibet and that I have met the MAN IN YELLOW ROBES AND YELLOW TURBAN AT THE LOW WHITE MONASTERY as I was told to do in theMemorandumat Berlin…. And I approached him with the RIGHT FOOT first, my hands held in the appropriate position, until he asked me in excellent French: 'Whence come you?' Then I made the proper sign and whispered the name of the room adjacent to another room which satisfied the Lama that I was the bearer of a MESSAGE to the Exalted Dalai-Lama as well as the principal Khutuktus of the EAST…. My little audience was much mystified, BUT the MAN IN YELLOW ROBES understood…. He began whirling a brass prayer wheel as he advanced toward my 'prisoner' and salaamed…. Then laying his right hand on the 'prisoner's' shoulder the Lama said: 'Your credentials, sahib, are correct,—and it is well; as your misfortunes have been great, great will be the blessings that will fall upon thy family and thy name. Thy piety hath been known to all my brethren, likewise thy toleration,—although the INFIDEL hath been a thorn pressed evilly against thy side …beware of that same infidel today! He is plotting evil HERE against thy very life,—he envieth the lives of thine!… Areligious warnow breweth in this land!… SPIES haunt thy footsteps from the rising to the setting sun…. BEWARE lest thy fair daughters and thy wife shall disappear!… Our prayers, sahib, shall attend thee; and our numerous eyes shall remain open to the PERILS as thou goest EAST where arms are open to receive thee,—but see thou, sahib, THAT THOU DOST WALK DILIGENTLY IN THE DIRECTION OF THOSE ARMS!…
"… The Lama backed away…. Never did he cease whirling the prayer wheel as he spoke … this constitutes the perpetual prayer of Lamas, the theory being that the wheel communicates the petition to the air and, thus, mingled with the elements, it ascends naturally to the heaven of the blessed…. We were then conducted through a long row of very low rooms ornamented with a variety of Buddhist statues that have never been dusted nor apparently disturbed, to an open terrace which overlooked a dreary waste of gray rocks and broken ledges and offered to our view the slender roadway that lay like a ribbon across the plain until it faded into the golden glow of the Eastern horizon…. When I looked at thatsingleroad, and recalled the WARNING of the Lama so solemnly given to my 'prisoner' about the care to be given to his daughters, I REALIZED FULLY THE MEANING OF THE PRYING EYES that followed us everywhere after my encounter with the milk-fed MUSSULMAN disguised as a Hindu mendicant!…"