“I’ll certainly do something—if I can find him.” Gilbert was silent for a moment. “Give me your new address,” he continued. “I may want you again.”
“And the rubles——”
“Here they are,” and the young American counted out the amount in Russian scrip, for silver rubles are now but seldom seen. “I’ll give you a good deal more, if you’ll aid me to get back what belongs to our company.”
“Nicholas Vanskynov is at your service, sire. Here is the address,” and it was written down in a notebook which Gilbert brought forth.
After this the young American questioned the Russian clerk closely concerning Ivan Snokoff’s methods of doing business. He learned that all the goods sold had been shipped out of Manchuria, so that to trace them farther was next to impossible. Beyond a doubt Captain Barusky was hand-in-glove with Snokoff, and the pair had cleaned up a good many thousand dollars by their nefarious actions.
After parting with the Russian clerk, Gilbert attended to various matters of business for the balance of that day and also for the morning of the next. While he war near the railroad station he saw a long train come in from the north packed with soldiers.
“This certainly looks like war,” he reasoned, as he watched the soldiers leave the train and march off to a temporary barracks. “And those chaps look as if they meant business, too,” he continued, noticing how well the body was drilled. “I declare, it arouses my old fighting blood just to look at them!” And he drew himself up as of old, when he was a lieutenant under Old Glory.
War talk was everywhere, and Russians and foreigners of all sorts filled the streets and discussed the situation in subdued tones. The Japanese said but little, and the Russians gave them the blackest of looks as they passed by.
The strained situation between Japan and Russia was of long standing. In a work of this kind it is not necessary to go into all the details which led to the great war which was so close at hand. Sufficient be it to say that Japan objected strongly to having any part of China or Korea held by Russia, and viewed with alarm the strong fortifications of Port Arthur, the building of the great Trans-Siberian railroad from the frontier to the port itself, and the occupation of other Chinese towns by the Russians.
“In but a few years more Russia will claim both Manchuria and Korea,” said the Japanese, “and then our own safety will be menaced.” Which was certainly true, for the islands that make up the kingdom of Japan lie directly to the southeast of the territory named, with nothing but the Sea of Japan between. More than this, the occupation of Manchuria and Korea by the Russians would interfere seriously with Japanese trade—a commerce that amounted to many millions of dollars annually.