BLACK SEA COAST. 73 



made them search the servant's box, and thus the 

 culprit was taken red-handed. The servant was 

 removed to prison, so were the forks. Time passed, 

 nothing was done. At last, tired of waiting, the 

 lady applied to know what was to be done in the 

 matter, and how soon ; at least, she pleaded, the 

 forks might now be returned to her. The answer 

 was, that it was necessary that the police should 

 have the other fork in order that they might iden- 

 tify the eleven as her property. In a weak moment 

 she sent her twelfth fork to them. The set was 

 complete. In a short time the servant was released, 

 and in spite of all her expostulations this luckless 

 lady never saw her forks again.' This occurred in 

 the Crimea ; the Caucasus is, I believe, under mili- 

 tary law, yet before I had passed my six months 

 in the country, I wus destined to become so fami- 

 liar with stories of murders and atrocities com- 

 mitted here from day to day, as to think little of 

 them. 



Meanwhile, thinking and chatting of these 

 things, we had found our way by 10 P.M. to the 

 forester's cottage. A huge fire was blazing out- 

 side, at which half a dozen grim-looking Cossacks 

 were smoking and toasting their toes. Inside the 

 cottage the cigarettes had gone out, and pufh'ng a 

 last long whiff of smoke through his nostrils, the 

 head-forester had betaken himself to dreamland. 

 The Cossacks told us he had guests to-night, and 



