He took a leaf from his pocket-book, and laid it on the table. It appeared as follows:—
"Les Russes ont commencé aujourd'hui un ------------------
------------------------------------ j'ai vu le général
Kouropatkin qui buvait --------------------------------
-------------- 'Doucement bercé sur ma mule fringante,'
je chevauchais à côté du général ----------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------- au même moment, psst! j'entends
le sifflement d'un obus qui me va au----dessus de la tête
éclater dans ------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------- des jambes,
des bras, *disjecta membra*, comme dit le ----------------
------------ plus loin, un médecin qui plonge ------------
-------------------------- et ----------------------------
-------------- la bataille."
"That is my account of a most dramatic episode of the battle of the Sha-ho. What is left? Nothing! It provoke curiosity, it tantalise, but does it satisfy, does it excite, hein?"
"The censor has certainly made a terrible hash of it," said Mr. Brown, passing the paper round the table. It created much amusement, and seemed to fascinate Jack's fifteen-year-old brother Humphrey, who gazed at it with a sort of awful admiration.
"But you spoke of Herr Schwab," said Jack. "What became of him?"
"He came——"
"By gum!" interrupted Humphrey, "don't I wish old Cæsar's despatches had been blacked out like this!"
Brin glanced at the boy over his glasses and resumed:
"Schwab came with me from Harbin by the same train. My word! it is Kaiser, Kaiser all the way. 'Our Kaiser who is in Berlin': I begin to think that is the German paternoster. I left Schwab at Vienna; he was going to sell his camera. He has a great admiration for you, Mr. Jack, but he is filled with regret that he never had an opportunity of doing business for Schlagintwert with that chief of brigands—how did he call himself?"
"Ah Lum. By the way, I forgot to tell you that when we landed at Southampton I found a letter awaiting me from him; it had been forwarded from Shanghai, and got here first owing to our little tour in Japan. It explains how Sowinski was able to reach Sakhalin."