due regard to its dangers, but with a certainty that it was worth it,
that I accepted the task which the fates had forced upon me.

We had settled down for a winter in Spascoe, when I received the
necessary orders to proceed to Omsk, with the suggestion that before
executing them I had better visit Headquarters at Vladivostok for a
conference with General Knox. I tried to get a carriage suitable for the
journey for my Staff from the railway authorities, but failed, and ended
by purloining a cattle-truck. In this contraption we got as far as
Nikolsk, where our truck was to have been hung on to the Harbin Express;
but the station-master, the best type of Russian public official,
thought it a disgrace that the Commander and Staff of their most trusted
Ally should travel so. He placed his private car at my disposal on my
promise to return the same if and when I could find another. We arrived
at "Vlady," and in four days had completed the arrangements for the move
and secured verbal and documentary instructions as to the general policy
to be pursued. The means to be employed to worm my way towards the Urals
were left entirely to myself.

I had already formed a very high opinion of the Russian character. Much
can be done by sympathy and persuasion, but if they fail, then the "big
stick" of Peter the Great, used sparingly, is the only method which is
certain to secure obedience to orders.

On the return journey I was hung up at Nikolsk for several days. Heavy
rains had caused the valleys and marshes to become flooded, and a
haystack which had been carried off its bed by the water had lodged
against the temporary sleeper buttress and swept the bridge away. The
hay had held the torrent back till it became so high that it rushed
over about two miles of the railway, destroying that also. The Japs