Brown of Moukden: A Story of the Russo-Japanese War

by Herbert Strang

  *CHAPTER V*

  *A Deal in Flour*

  Vladivostok--Orloff--Russian Resentment--Large Profits--QuickReturns--Overreached--A Droshky Race--The Waverley--CaptainFraser--Sowinski comes Aboard--Sea Law--Pourboire

  It was two o'clock in the morning on the second day after Jack leftHarbin. The train slowed down as it rounded a loop, and finally came toa stop. Jack was fast asleep in his corner of the horse-box. He wasawakened by a touch on the shoulder.

  "You get down here, sir."

  "Ah! Where are we, sergeant?"

  "Four versts from Vladivostok."

  "That's well. And what sort of a night?"

  "Fine, sir; but dark as pitch."

  "Thanks! Let me see; is it twenty-five roubles I owe you?"

  "Thirty, sir, no less; more if you like."

  "Here you are. Have you got a match? Take care: a spark, you know!Count them; three ten-rouble notes. Now, how am I to get into the town?"

  "The road's not far on the other side of the line.--Nobody is to knowhow you got here, sir."

  "I understand that. Many thanks! It has been a pretty rapid journeyfor Manchuria, I think."

  "Yes. Live stock comes next to the Viceroy. Horses are none the betterfor being jolted over three hundred miles of rail, so they've let uspass several goods trains on the way."

  "Any passenger trains allowed to pass us?"

  "Not one."

  "Then I couldn't have got here sooner. Thanks again!"

  Jack dropped from the foot-board, ran down the embankment, and in a fewminutes struck the high-road. He had not thought it necessary toexplain to the sergeant that he knew the district. It was, as theRussian had said, very dark, but Jack made his way to a plantation nearthe road, through which he knew that a little stream ran. There he hada thorough wash, changed his collar, brushed and shook his clothes, andfelt a different creature. Then he sat down on the moss-grown roots ofan oak, and ate the Chinese cakes and dried fruit that remained from thestock of food given him by Hi Feng, the compradore's brother, washing itdown with water from the brook. Dawn was breaking by the time he hadfinished his frugal breakfast, but it was useless to go into the townuntil the business houses opened. He therefore determined to remain inthe secluded nook he had chosen, and sat there thinking of what laybefore him.

  About eight o'clock he rose to continue his walk to the town. It wastwo years since he had last visited it, and he was struck by theprogress it had made in the interval. Founded only forty years before,the city had grown very rapidly; but since the Russian occupation ofManchuria it had made giant strides. New hospitals and barracks hadbeen erected; the surrounding hills, once decked with forest, but nowtreeless, were covered with immense forts and earthworks, at which vastgangs of coolies were still at work. The wooden shanties that formerlylined the shore had for the most part given place to more solid andimposing structures of brick and stone. Other signs of developmentcaught Jack's eye as he walked towards the harbour; but he was too eagerto complete his errand to dwell upon them, especially as he heard behindhim in the distance the rumble of an approaching train. It overtook himjust as he turned down one of the steep, narrow side streets leading tothe office of his father's agent; and as he saw the long line ofcarriages, including several sleeping-cars, roll past, he could not butwonder whether Anton Sowinski was among the passengers, and hastened hissteps.

  The office had just been opened for the day when he arrived. AlexeyPetrovitch Orloff was a big, jovial Russian of some forty years; honest,or Mr. Brown would have had no dealings with him; a little greedy; agood business man, and on excellent terms with his principal. But Jackknew little about him outside their business transactions, and had madeup his mind not to trust him with his secret.

  "Ah, Ivan Ivanovitch!" exclaimed Orloff as Jack entered. "I wasexpecting you or your father. You came by the night train?"

  "Yes. You must have been asleep when it arrived."

  "What sort of a journey had you?"

  "It was very hot."

  "Yes, we have been baked here. When did you leave?"

  "On Thursday."

  "A fairly quick journey, considering the state of the line. You leftbefore my letter arrived?"

  "Yes. Of course you guess the object of my visit?"

  "The consignment of flour? You have had great luck, I must say; butCaptain Fraser always is lucky. Of course his cargo was not contrabandaccording to English ideas, but we Russians have been rather strict oflate, and the Japanese will probably follow suit. However, CaptainFraser never saw a Japanese cruiser the whole voyage. It should be anexcellent speculation for your father. Prices are naturally high justnow."

  "That is good news. We shouldn't like to wind up with a failure."

  "Of course not. It is a pity your father is retiring; we are bound towin in the end; but I've no doubt he can well afford it. And I'm notthe man to complain, if, as I hope, I can get hold of a part of hisbusiness. Perhaps he is wise after all. Manchuria is not the mostcomfortable country to live in--just now, at any rate; and I fancy anEnglishman will have a poor time of it in Moukden, eh?" (He gave Jack ashrewd look.) "Your newspapers have so completely taken the side of theenemy."

  "Yes, there is a strong feeling at home in favour of Japan, and yourpeople resent it. That's natural enough."

  "It's rather worse than that. People here are saying that Russia andEngland will be at war before a month's out."

  "Nonsense!"

  "They say so. Our cruisers have stopped a P. and O. liner, the_Malacca_, in the Mediterranean, and put a prize crew on board. She wascarrying contraband, it appears; but your fire-eaters--jingoes, is thatthe name?--are thirsting for our blood."

  "We don't all eat fire and drink blood, Alexey Petrovitch."

  "True. And you English will find you have backed the wrong horse."

  "You haven't been much troubled here, then?"

  "No. The bombardment did us no harm. Our cruisers sank three Japanesetransports the other day, and they captured another of your ships withcontraband, the _Allanton_: you'll see her lying in the harbour now."

  "Well, it appears to be lucky for us that the _Waverley_ was, in asense, on your side. About this consignment of flour: do you think youcan find an immediate purchaser? We want to realize and get away atonce."

  The Russian's eyes gleamed, but his reply was cautious.

  "Well, Ivan Ivanovitch, it is always more difficult to sell in a hurrythan if you can wait. A good profit can be made, but we must take ourtime. It is a matter of bargaining. The man in a hurry alwayssuffers."

  "Yes, I know. We must be prepared to sacrifice something. At the marketrate the flour ought to fetch about 27,000 roubles; but look here, ifyou can find an immediate purchaser at 25,000 I'll let it go."

  Orloff still hesitated, but Jack could see that he was making an effortto restrain his eagerness.

  "In business," he said, "it is best to be frank. If you will give me myusual commission of two and a half per cent--what do you say to mytaking over the stuff myself?"

  Jack smiled.

  "I say that it pays very well to be principal and agent at the sametime. But we won't quarrel about the commission. If you'll write me acheque for 24,375 roubles, we'll call the matter settled. I've fullauthority to act."

  The Russian, looking as if he was sorry he had not improved theopportunity still further, sat down at once and made out the cheque,adding:

  "There will be one or two papers to sign. I will get them from thedockyard people."

  "Very well. In the meantime I'll pay this into the bank and call backas soon as I can."

  "What is the hurry? Business is slack, and I suppose I shan't see youagain for a long time."

  "Probably not. But there's a ring at your telephone. Evidently someonewants to do business. I'll see you again shortly."

  Orloff was disposed to be talkative, but Jack was on thorns lest thetrain he
had seen come in should have brought Sowinski. He had thecheque; while in the train he had taken the vouchers from the sole ofhis boot; he wondered whether he could complete his business at the bankbefore Sowinski, supposing him to be in Vladivostok, should come uponthe scene. He hurried to the branch of the Russo-Chinese bank, where hewas well known to the officials. Business there also was slack; themanager said indeed that trade in Vladivostok would be ruined if the warcontinued much longer. Within half an hour, Jack left the building withbills on Baring Brothers for the amount of the cheque and the sumrepresented by the vouchers, less 2000 roubles in notes which he keptfor his immediate and contingent expenses.

  He hurried back to Orloff's office, keeping a wary eye on the peoplethronging the streets, among them many soldiers in the _pashalik_, theircharacteristic peaked cap. When he entered the room, Orloff flung downhis pen and gave a shout of merriment.

  "I must tell you the joke, Ivan Ivanovitch. Not five minutes after youleft, who should come in but Sowinski!" Jack repressed a start. "Hehad happened to hear, he told me, that the _Waverley_ had arrived with aconsignment of flour for your father. Was I empowered to sell? Ha! ha!It was not a matter of much consequence, he said. Ha! ha! I knowSowinski. But, having a small contract to fulfil in a month's time atHarbin, he could do with the flour, if it was to be had cheap. 'Mr.Brown is leaving the country, I understand,' says he. Ha! ha!"

  Sowinski had evidently not told Orloff of the arrest. Jack wondered fora moment why. But the explanation at once suggested itself. If thefact were known, the consignment would no doubt be impounded by theRussian authorities in Vladivostok, and then the Pole would lose hischance of making a profitable deal.

  "I assure you I was not eager," continued Orloff, still laughing."Sowinski is no friend of mine. In the end he went down to the harbour,inspected the consignment, and bought it for 27,000 roubles, the marketprice, as you yourself mentioned."

  "Quick returns and by no means small profits," said Jack.

  "Yes. But--ha! ha!--what makes me laugh is something else. I was rungup at the telephone--just as you went, you remember; two vessels hadbeen signalled from the mouth of the harbour carrying flour--not amoderate consignment like yours, but a whole cargo each. You see, IvanIvanovitch? The market price of Sowinski's lot will fall in an hour to20,000 roubles, and it serves him right. How your father will laughwhen he learns how his rival has overreached himself! By the way, the_Waverley_ is sailing this morning, in ballast of course."

  "Indeed!" No information could have pleased Jack more. "Captain Fraseris an old friend of ours. I should like to see him."

  "Then you haven't much time to lose. But you may as well sign thesepapers to complete our little transaction--the last, I am sorry to say.You will be back again?"

  "I am not sure. I am not staying in Vladivostok long, and I'll saygood-bye in case I don't get time to run in again."

  "And when do you leave for home?"

  "As soon as possible."

  "By the Trans-Siberian, I suppose?"

  "Probably; unless we can get through the lines to Newchang."

  "That will be easy enough soon. Reinforcements are pouring in forGeneral Kuropatkin, and he'll soon be strong enough to drive thosewaspish little yellow men into the sea."

  "Perhaps. Well, good-bye, Alexey Petrovitch!"

  "Remember me to your father."

  "I will, the moment I see him. Good-bye!"

  Leaving the office Jack hailed a droshky, and ordered the man to drivedown to the harbour. Knowing that Sowinski was actually in the town hefelt insecure with such valuable property in his pocket. As he steppedinto the vehicle he glanced round, and, forewarned though he was, hestarted when he saw, a few yards up the street, the man he was anxiousto avoid hurrying in his direction. By the look on the Pole's face, andhis quickened step, Jack knew that he had been recognized. It was touchand go now.

  "Quick, my man!" he said quietly to the driver, "time presses."

  The man, scenting a tip, whipped up his horse, and it sprang forward,throwing Jack back into his seat. At the same moment he heard the Poleshouting behind; but his voice was at once drowned by the clatter of thewheels, and the droshky man, standing in the car, and driving with theusual recklessness of the Russian coachman, was too much occupied inavoiding the traffic to turn his head. Jack, however, a minute laterlooked cautiously over the back of the vehicle. Sowinski, with urgentgestures, was beckoning a droshky some distance up the street. He wasnow nearly a quarter of a mile behind; and, turning a corner, Jack losthim from sight. But the street he had now reached was a long straightone, leading direct to the shore, and almost clear of traffic. In a fewseconds the pursuing droshky swung round the corner at a pace that leftJack amazed it did not overturn. To throw the Pole off the scent wasimpossible now; it was an open race. In two minutes Jack's droshkyrattled down the incline to the shore. He had the fare and a handsometip in readiness. Springing from the car almost before it had stopped,he paid the man, leapt down the steps into a sampan, and called to theburly Chinaman smoking in it:

  "The English ship _Waverley_! A rouble if you put me aboard quickly."

  The Chinaman looked stolidly up.

  "She is about to sail, master. See! And they will not allow you onboard. There are difficulties. The port officers----"

  Jack waited for no more. Taking a rouble note from his pocket, hecried:

  "Here is six times your fare; this or nothing!"

  At the same time he seized the yuloh,--the pole that does duty for astern oar, and shoved off. There is nothing a Chinese coolie will notdo for a rouble. The man sprang to the oar, worked its flat endbackwards and forwards with all his strength, and sent the sampan overthe water at a greater speed than its clumsy build seemed capable of.Jack kept his head low in order to be sheltered as long as possible bythe shanties on shore and the sampans crowded at the water's edge;Sowinski, he felt, would not hesitate to take a shot at him. He couldsee the Pole spring from his droshky and rush at break-neck pace towardsthe waiting row of craft. He leapt into one, pointed Jack out to thecoolie, and in a few moments started in pursuit.

  The _Waverley_ had left the inner harbour where merchant vessels dropanchor, and was steaming dead slow out to sea. The captain stood on thebridge, and the vessel hooted a farewell to the cruiser _Rurik_ that layin the middle of the channel. Suddenly Captain Fraser became aware thatthe voice sounding clear across the still water was hailing him.Glancing round, he saw a sampan making rapidly towards him from theshore, and in it a youth with one hand to his mouth, the other wavinghis hat. The captain first swore, then signalled half-speed ahead; itwas some Russian formality, he supposed, and as a British sailor he'd behanged if he delayed another moment for any foreign port officer. Butnext moment he heard his own name in an unmistakably English accent,and, looking more closely at the shouter, recognized him.

  "Young Mr. Brown!" he muttered. "What's he wishing?"

  At the same time he jerked the indicator back to "stop", a bell tinkledbelow, and the vessel came to a stand-still.

  "Ay, ay!" he shouted. "And be hanged if there isn't another manbawling. What's in the wind, anyway?"

  The first craft was soon alongside, a rope was heaved over, and in a fewseconds Jack stood on deck.

  "Pleased to see you, Mr. Brown," said the Captain. "Ay, and I wouldnahave sto'ped for no ither man."

  "Thanks, Captain! I want your help." Jack spoke hurriedly; the secondsampan was but a biscuit-shot distant. "The Russians have collared myfather on a charge of spying for the Japanese; I don't know where he is;that fellow in the boat is at the bottom of it. I've managed to steal amarch on him and sell the flour you landed the other day, and I want youto take charge of these bills and deposit them at the Hong-Kong andShanghai Bank for me."

  "Eh, laddie, is that a fact? And what'll you do yersel' the now?"

  "Oh, I'll stay and find my father. Here's Sowinski. I'm jolly glad Igot here first."

  The othe
r sampan was by this time under the vessel's quarter. A seamancame up to the captain.

  "A furriner, sir, talking double Dutch."

  "Quay."

  He left the bridge and went to the side.

  "What might you be wishing the now?" he said.

  Sowinski began to address him in very broken English, eked out withFrench and Russian.

  "I'm no' what you might ca' a leenguist," said the Captain, after apatient hearing. "What'll he be meaning, Mr. Brown?"

  "He says I'm a fugitive, and insists on your giving me up. If youdon't, he'll have the boat stopped at the signal station, and you'll beheavily fined."

  "He's a terrible man, yon; there's nae doot about it. Just tell him tobide a wee, Mr. Brown, until you an' me has had a wee bit crack. Now,sir," he added in a lower tone, when this had been interpreted to thePole, "hadn't ye better come wi' me now ye're aboard? If you go ashoreyou may be caught. I'm no sure but we'll be overhauled by a Russiancutter as we gang out, but I've no contraband aboard; in fact, I've runa cargo in for the Russians, an' well they know it. Your father may behalf-way to Europe by this time; I canna see there'd be ony guid bidingto look for him."

  "That's good of you, Captain, but I must stay. They say they'vedeported my father; but somehow I feel sure he is still in the country,and I shall try to hang on here by hook or crook till I find him."

  "Aweel; then the best thing will be to get yon terrible Turk aboard.Just ask him to step up, sir."

  As Sowinski was clambering up the side the captain signalled theengine-room to go ahead dead slow. He invited the Pole to join him onthe bridge. Captain Fraser looked him critically up and down; then saidblandly:

  "And is it a port officer I'm to understand you are, Mister?"

  "A port officer! Not so. I am man of affairs, business man. But inname of his majesty ze Imperator I--I arrest zis young man."

  "Just exactly. But I beg your pardon, Mister--Mister--what?"

  "Sowinski."

  "Just exactly. Well, then, Mr. Sowinski, do ye happen to have about yea warrant for the arrest o' this young man in the name o' the Imperator,by which, I preshume, you mean the Czar? Where's your authority, man?"

  The Pole looked puzzled.

  "Audority! I have no audority. But I tell you, zis young man isdeported; he escape from arrestation; he----"

  "Tuts! And you have the impidence to come aboard my ship: to haud meup, a British subject; to cause loss to my owners--to my owners, Isay--without authority? I'll learn you, Mister, what it is to haud up aBritish ship without authority. Hi, Jim! lug this man below, and if hedoesna behave himsel' just clap him under hatches."

  Sowinski, wriggling desperately, and volubly protesting in half a dozenlanguages, was bundled from the bridge.

  "He's got the wrong sow by the lug in Duncan Fraser," said the captain,with a grim tightening of the lips. "I'll just tak' him along toShanghai if the coast is clear, Mr. Brown, though I may have to drop hima few miles lower down if I see signs of any Russians beinginqueesitive. And if you must go ashore, laddie, tak' a word fraeme--keep out o' the road o' the Russians."

  "I'll be careful, Captain. When you get to Shanghai you'll tell ourconsul all about it, and ask him to wire to England? The newspaperswill take it up, and I should think Lord Lansdowne will make officialenquiries at St. Petersburg."

  "Ay, I'll do what I can. You're quite determined to bide?"

  "Oh yes! And another thing, Captain: I think, if you don't mind, you'dbetter let my mother know; she expects us home, and not hearing, wouldbe alarmed. Tell her not to worry; it's sure to come all right in theend."

  "Ay, I'll do that. I never heard the like o't. What the ballachulishwill the Russians be doing next! I needna say I wish ye good luck, sir.Will you take a wee drappie?"

  "Not to-day, Captain, many thanks all the same! A pleasant voyage toyou!"

  Both sampans had kept pace with the steamer; the coolies were beginningto be anxious about their fares. Jack bade his friend the captain acordial farewell; the vessel stopped; and, dropping into his sampan,Jack ordered the man to put him ashore at the nearest point. Within ayard of the shore the Chinaman brought the punt to a stop and demandedtwo roubles.

  "But the bargain was one."

  "I did not know, Master. I do not risk offending the Russians for arouble. Give two, or I will not let you land."

  He looked at Jack with victorious malice in his beady black eyes. For amoment Jack hesitated; he did not wish to have an altercation with theman; at the same time he objected to be "done". He stood up in thesampan and drew a bundle of notes from his pocket. Selecting one, hefolded it; then, flinging it to the coolie, he sprang suddenlyoverboard, giving the sampan a kick which sent it backwards. The manalso had risen; the sudden movement made him lose his balance, and hefell over the yuloh into the water. Jack quietly walked away. As he didso he heard loud laughter on his left hand. Turning, he saw that theincident had been witnessed by two Russian officers who had been walkingtowards the mouth of the harbour. Knowing the ways of the Chinesecoolie, they were much amused at the readiness with which Jack haddisposed of the boatman. One of them shouted "Well done!" in Russian.Jack smiled, and replied with a couple of words in the same tongue; thenhurried on, thanking his stars that the matter had ended so well.