every evening to the saloon by their ratings-divers, engineers, carpenters, blacksmiths, crew of the Aleida Johanna, orew of the Permoshnik-for their tot of rum and their packet of cigarettes, and afterwards would sit about for an hour or two on deck, elustering round two who played on their mandolines and sang little Russian songs, now grave now gay, in voices of a singular sweet

ness.

The sun would go down, for we were too far south for the midnight sun, but there would be no darkness.

Kischfeldt, the captain of the Aleida Johanna-a huge man with a great heart, before the war the youngest captain in the East Asiatic Company from Libau to New York, and master of the Kursk, a 14,000ton ship-with a passionate fondness for music, would talk to me of "La Tosca," which he had last heard in Odessa and I at the Opera Comique, or hum an air from "Pagliacci," his favourite opera and mine.

Or he would tell me of what he had seen in the Baltio during the revolution-of the officers of the battleships slaughtered or thrown overboard with weights at their feet, so that when the wife of one sought to recover his body, the diver she sent down found them upright like trees at the bottom of the harbour, swaying to the tide. He would tell, too, of what led up to it all. Of how he had seen train after train fall of troops going up to the line with no arms at all, with uniforms of shoddy, and boots

of paper; of notices in the parks in Petrograd, "No dogs or soldiers admitted"; of officers who struck and flogged their men, but never went round their trenches; of how he himself had fought in the battle of Tsushima and seen the Russian fleet betrayed and destroyed by the incompetence of its officers; and of the oorruption at the heart of all Russian Government and all Russian institutions.

That Russia was ripe for democracy he did not believe, but he pretended to no regret at seeing the old régime wiped out in blood. Nor could one wonder when one saw the puppet Government we had set up in Archangel and the arrogance of the officers who paraded the Troitsky in epaulettes and spurs, and showed no disposition to go nearer the front.

fre

There was a

The necessity for procuring various stores took us quently to Popoff, the port of Kem, and occasionally to Arehangel. The D.N.T.O.'s mess at Popoff was a very welcome port of call. young and very cheery crewd there, who spent their spare time in learning the language of affection in Russian, and in organising dances at which they competed for the favours of the beauties of the village, whose names I have forgotten but whose dancing I remember. It was curious to watch in the Y.M.C.A. hut, to the sound of a concertina, dances which one had seen at the Russian ballet a few months before at the Alhambra, done with no less grace.

allow no Russian to lay a sacrilegious finger.

lated to revolutionise the ideas of the maidens of Popoff.

It was at Popoff, too, that there occurred an example of poetic justice. A fatigue party was being marched down the plank - road, carrying corrugated iron. To my surprise, the right-hand man of the leading section of fours was my late Bn. H.Q. mess cook in France, who, coming to me in great distress, and out of work after demobilisation, had been given a job at 148. a day, which he had thrown up at the end of a week. His bad cooking I had suffered in silence for some months, but his ingratitude I was glad to see suitably rewarded.

Towards the end of July I heard that the 12-inch motorpump had arrived in Archangel, and went over with the Aleida Johanna to collect it.

I found in charge of it a small motor engineer about twenty years old, whom I had not previously met. His voice showed that he came from the Tyne, and his look that he preferred Newcastle to Archangel. He paid very little attention to me beyond telling me that he had had to come away at a day's notice, and had not had time to get all the spares he wanted, and devoted himself entirely to the pump, on which he would

Both he and I watched it with a good deal of anxiety as, a day or two later, it went up the side of the Ulidia and was lowered down No. 2 hold

not been improved by two years' neglect, the pump weighed a ton and a half, and the box containing its suctions and steel dischargepipes three tons.

However, it was got safely down into the 'tween-decks and pushed aft against the bulkhead.

The purpose of this was that, by outting out a plate in the bulkhead, and by having one set of suctions in the stokehold and another in No. 2 hold, the pump could be made available for whichever compartment most needed it.

The law of the obstinacy of inanimate objects, which usually ordains that there shall be a stanchion or something of the sort in precisely the most awkward possible position, did not operate in this case; for immediately above the pump was a ventilator, and up this the 12-inch steel discharge-pipes were led. bend on the top allowed the pump to discharge clear over the side near the gangway.

A

This led to a number of alarms and excursions; for Reay, the motor engineer, from his position at the pump in the 'tween-decks, never knew whether or not there were boats alongside when he started

one, and all hands were in good spirits.

Reay became a popular hero, and an admiring crowd was usually to be found round the pump whenever he gave it a trial run.

Needing an assistant to fetch and carry spanners, petrol, &c., and to swing the engine for starting, he attached to himself one Savonoff, who became his devoted slave.

They spent all day and most of the night in their dark corner of No. 2 'tween-deck alongside the pump. Coming down unexpectedly, I would find Savonoff creeping about on his stomach making explosive noises or gazing at Reay between the crossed fingers of his two hands. Reay would explain that Savonoff was telling him about his experiences in the Russian armoured cars, or how he had gone to gaol for assaulting a policeman in Petrograd. Neither knowing a word of the other's language, they understood each other perfectly, and would carry on long and intricate conversations on all sorts of subjects entirely by gesture-of which Savonoff was such a master that I have always regretted that I did not secure him for the "movies."

For very few other Russians had Reay any respect. Their habit of eating cold raw bacon for breakfast, and putting apricot jam into their tea, was a constant irritation to him, and certainly it was not pleasant to watch,

Moreover, they were continually grumbling about their rations, which were on exactly the same scale as those of our own troops, and far more liberal than those issued to any other Russians, and it was noticeable that the general tone was not so contented as it had been before. The truth was, that Bolshevik feeling was in the air, and that we had one or two agitators who were quick to take advantage of it. Soroko itself had been in the occupation of the Bolsheviks, and Belaieff's millworkers and, still more, the railway employees were strongly though secretly in sympathy with them.

From Soroka we had about a dozen carpenters and a certain amount of casual labour, and these were infected with the new principles, and were not slow to begin propaganda amongst the rest.

However, there was nothing seriously to worry about until the end of the first week in August. The work was going on-though not as fast as we had wished, for we had hoped to be ready to attempt to float by this time-and I had gone over to Archangel to persuade the bank there to disgorge some of my money.

It was unsatisfactory to have to go away and leave Reay the only Englishman on board the ship; but the men had to be paid, and the bank, though they readily admitted that my account was several thousand pounds in credit, blandly stated when

had no money, and therefore regretted their inability to pay. They continued to do business as usual, however, and, after the D.N.T.O.'s interpreter and I had cornered the manager in his private office and refused to go or to allow him to go until he produced some hundred of thousands of roubles, we eventually got the money, though he attempted to palm off some nine different breeds of rouble, each more obsolete and spurious than the last.

The identification of Kerensky's, Nicolai's, perforated and not perforated, Tzar notes, Archangel notes, British guaranteed roubles, &o., had by this time become something of a fine art.

Having secured the money, I was anxious to get back as soon as possible.

There was a sloop-one of the "Flower" class-calling at Onega and going on from there to Popoff, whence I could get to Soroka by train.

While in Archangel I had heard stories of mutinies of Russian troops and the murder of British officers up the Dwina, but I had not paid much attention to them. On board the sloop, however, was a subaltern in the Rifle Brigade whom I had last seen on the morning of 21st March 1918, opposite St Quentin, when he was taken prisoner. He told me that he was one of five officers detailed to join at Onega the 5th North Russian Rifles-reputed to be on the brink of mutiny. They

It proved a lucky decision. In the first place, we had only left Onega an hour when the 5th Russian Rifles mutinied, murdered all the officers in the town, including, presumably, my friend in the Rifle Brigade, and handed over the place to the Bolsheviks' troops. Onega was the next post to Soroka.

Secondly, the navigating officer of the tug was Lieut. E. J. Grey, D.S.C., a New Zealander, and the best type of sailorman, who had been second in command of the famous Qboat Stockforce in the historio action in which her commander, Captain Auten, won his V.C.

He was very interested in the Ulidia; we quickly became friendly. I saw at once how valuable he would be to me, and immediately on our arrival at Popoff we both telegraphed to the Ministry of Shipping and asked that he might be demobilised at once.

No difficulties were made, as he was supernumerary, and within three or four days he was in our employment and had joined us aboard the Ulidia. He was a very welcome addition,