A PRISONER IN RUSSIAN HANDS 195 
understand it was forbidden to shoot there; so I got 
out as quickly as possible* not even waiting to pick 
up some of my birds. 
Time hanging heavily on the hands of those con¬ 
fined to the schoolroom and barrack grounds, they 
amused themselves by drawing with soap, on the 
windows of the room in which they were quartered, 
caricatures of their gaolers and Lieutenant Grib- 
nitsky, with inscriptions beneath, which some of the 
Russians took seriously. When they went out for a 
walk under guard, each would start off in a different 
direction on purpose to lead their custodians a dance. 
A mutiny occurred one day amongst the Japanese 
sailors, who attacked their guards, breaking the 
heads of a couple of them with bottles and taking 
away their arms. The guards were reinforced and 
the men subdued, after which the guards were 
doubled. The cause of the trouble was that they 
were allowed six and a half kopecks per day to buy 
food, and out of this small pittance the guards used 
to make a squeeze, and the men got hungry and 
desperate in consequence. I reported the matter to 
my friend Lieutenant Abaza, who took action at 
once and had the guards punished, and the sailors 5 
allowance increased to thirty-six kopecks a day. 
Some little time after my return to Yokohama, 
at a dinner-party given by some French friends, I 
met and was introduced to the Russian Admiral and 
some officers of the Skobeleff . Needless to say, no 
reference was made to our previous meeting in 
Petropaulsky ! 
