“I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t know what was ahead of us when we left Nizhni, Sid,” said Raymond as they gazed.
“If we had known I don’t believe I should have been willing to tackle it. But it would have been easy if we could have come by wagon through the Dariel Pass, as we planned.”
At Tiflis the boys saw evidence of war preparations again, in companies of soldiers that were passing in the streets. They proceeded directly to the railway station, where they tried, without success, to obtain news of the war. The railway agent replied “Yes” to every question they asked, but that was not very enlightening, as their questions were varied. So they purchased second-class tickets to Batum, and took the first train that arrived.
CHAPTER XIX
GOOD-BYE TO RUSSIA
The train which the boys boarded was a very slow one, with, apparently, a maximum speed of about fifteen miles an hour; nevertheless it seemed heavenly to them to have a mode of locomotion other than that supplied by their own legs. Then, too, they were alone in the compartment, and hoped they would continue to be alone all night. They judged it was quite likely that they would be, for they observed that nearly all the passengers on the train went third class. Raymond declared that that was where they belonged also, for with the exposure and hardships of their long journey their clothes had become very disreputable in appearance.
Sidney had expected to try to send a cable from Tiflis to their mother in New York, but the station agent had exhibited such density regarding the English language that he decided to wait until they reached Batum. He believed that in a seaport they would almost certainly find some one who could speak English and who would be willing to help them, even if the official of the telegraph office could not be made to understand.
It was fortunate that they did not wait in Tiflis, for when they arrived at Batum they learned that the train they were on was the first one in several days that had been allowed to carry the general public. It was not known either how long it would be before it was followed by another.
Nearly all the trains were being used by the Government to transport troops that were being massed at the various Black Sea ports it was supposed in anticipation of the opening of hostilities with Turkey. That country, the boys learned, still remained neutral, though her purchase from Germany of two cruisers that had fled for shelter within the Dardanelles had already nearly precipitated trouble with Russia.
Sidney and Raymond found their blankets quite as necessary in a Russian railway coach as on a Russian mountain. While the air of the coach was not so cold as that of the mountain, the surface on which they had to lie was even harder than the surface of the Caucasus. With their blankets and their cloaks and their soft Daghestan rug, however, they made very comfortable beds on the long seats which extended in their compartment across the coach. And with their acquired ability to sleep wherever they might make their beds, they were ignorant of everything that occurred all night, not being aroused by any of the jolting of stopping and starting.