Assignats

by Henry Leverage
Author of “The Iron Dollar.”
When Ivan with the long surname walked down the beach at Novgorod he found three men. These men were sitting on their haunches staring out over the Japan Sea. Ivan spoke to them in English.
“I have a ship,” he said.
The first man glanced at the second; the second stared at the third. They rose from their haunches and wrapped their rags around gaunt limbs.
“A ship in this accursed port?” asked one.
“A bloody lie!” exclaimed a second castaway.
“Ah hae me doots,” rasped a third derelict.
“It is a fact, gentlemen,” said Ivan with the long surname. “The ship is loading between here and Vladivostok. She wants but a master, a mate and an engineer.”
The three men grew sad. They had been broken on the rack of peace. They had come ashore at Novgorod in a leaking sampan. The government of Japan was at that moment interested in their whereabouts.
“Our papers were lost in a great storm at sea,” said the leader of the trio, whom men called “Micky” McMasters. “You mind the vast simoom?”
Ivan, the Russian, spread out his hands. His great spade-shaped beard fluttered in the warm Japanese breeze. He thumped a be-medaled chest.