V—THE RUSSIAN GENERAL DISGUISED AS AN AUSTRIAN
On reaching the Hungarian city, General Korniloff found it, as he expected, full of troops. Reinforcements were coming in to be dispatched to the various fronts, while other men were on their way home on periods of furlough. Amid all these soldiers nobody took any notice of the disguised Russian in his simple Austrian uniform. Needless to say, he carefully avoided attracting attention to himself, always keeping where the crowds were thickest.
Feeling hungry, he went into a small eating-house frequented by working-class people and ordered beer, bread, and sausage. Most of the customers in the place spoke Hungarian, but two sitting at a table near him were talking in German, and he overheard what they said. One of them was a woman, who, to judge by her appearance, was engaged in munition-making.
"Ach, du Guter!" she exclaimed to her companion. "That Russian general they captured in the Carpathians last year—Korniloff—has escaped, and they are offering a reward for his capture."
The fugitive felt for a moment as if all eyes were bent upon him, but as a matter of fact nobody took any notice of him.
"Ugh!" growled the man addressed. "Why couldn't they keep him when they had him? How much are they offering?"
"Fifty thousand kronen."
"Fui tausend! Fifty thousand kronen for a verdammten Russen! And in these times, when the war costs so much!"
"Ja, mein lieber, but he's a general, you see," explained the woman. "I wish I could find him. It would be better than making munitions."