A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 3'2l 



enlighten us — there are always such. He discoursed 

 at some length. It was, of course, a bad business, but 

 there was no doubt that the Allies would be at Berlin 

 by Christmas, Of course we were opposing 300,000 

 men to a force of a million, but that w^ould be all right, 

 because everyone knows that one Englishman is worth 

 four Germans, and besides, it did not take more than 

 three months' training to make a soldier, and Kitchener's 

 army would be ready by Christmas, and so forth, and 

 so forth — the optimistic platitudes of the average 

 railway-carriage Briton. Finally, however, he became 

 mistrustful of our simplicity and suspected a hoax. 



" But where d'ye come from that you let on not to 

 know all this ? " he demanded sarcastically. " North 

 Pole, I suppose ! " 



"Well, from somewhere that looked not unlike it," 

 we admitted humbly, as the train rolled into King's 

 Cross Station. 



21 



