“At what place?” and when he mentioned the name of the hotel he was asked why he had left.
“They did not wish me to stay any longer.”
“Is it possible? Wait, and we will see if we can accommodate you.”
Gilbert sat down, and in great haste a clerk was sent to the hostelry at which Gilbert had been stopping. Ten minutes later the clerk returned, and the young American was then told that he could not be accommodated.
“Here’s a state of things truly,” thought the ex-lieutenant. “I wonder if it is going to be this way all over.”
It was so at the next hotel, and also that following. Then Gilbert found a small place kept by a German who had a Russian wife. Business was bad with the German, and he listened eagerly to the offer the young American made him.
“I told you vot,” he said. “I keep you, but you say noddings apout it, hey? You haf der room py der back of der house und you eats dare, too, hey?”
“I’m willing,” said Gilbert; and so it was settled. By this time he was tremendously hungry, and never did a meal taste better than that which the German hotel keeper set before him.
CHAPTER V
THE FIRST NAVAL BATTLE
While Gilbert was having his own troubles in Port Arthur the differences between Russia and Japan were speedily reaching the acute stage.