A SEARCHING CROSS-EXAMINATION. 211 



down-stairs and appealed to our very important friend 

 the Little Governor. To his further astonishment, 

 however, even the Little Governor seemed all at once 

 to have grown callous and indifferent, and confined 

 himself to merely stating that His Excellency was a 

 very busy man, and that Gen. So-and-so, a very im- 

 portant person, had once waited a whole week before 

 he was granted an audience. 



Russian officials are past - masters in the noble 

 Oriental art of humbugging and procrastinating, and 

 becoming alarmed at the Little Governor's hint about 

 Gen. So-and-so, who had waited a week, I then 

 and there determined on a somewhat heroic expe- 

 dient. 



The most effective weapon against Eastern humbug 

 is Western bounce. Interpreting literally, according 

 to my instructions, Sascha now informed the chief of 

 the bureaucratic staff in the office that if the necessary 

 papers to allow us to continue on our way were not 

 forthcoming by three o'clock, I intended to "telegraph 

 to the American government that an American citizen 

 was illegally detained by the officials of Ekaterinoslav. 

 That the American government would then telegraph 

 to St. Petersburg, and then whatever happened, the 

 responsibility would lie on their own heads." (!) 



The tchinovniks didn't exactly curl up and die at 

 this threat of communicating with Uncle Sam, but 

 they changed color and exhibited various other unmis- 

 takable signs of having been touched on a very sensi- 

 tive spot. Having delivered this home thrust, I went 

 back to the hotel. 



By and by Sascha turned up, once again in high 



