“From the furs of the sleigh emerged a gigantic Russian, blonde-bearded, and under his fur overcoat was some sort of a military uniform. I watched him with interest as he came toward the train, accompanied by the station-master, and met by the salutes of the soldiers, who are everywhere in Russia.
“He came straight towards the carriage where I was seated in lonely pomp, and I had just time to seat myself in the opposite corner of the compartment when the door was thrown open, and—enter his royal nibs—the Archduke Alexandewitch or something or other. At least this was high nobility of some kind. His bearded face was very red, and his system had evidently been warmed by something besides exercise.
“His eyes were blurred, and, coming from the light into the semi-darkness of the carriage, he did not see me. A guard deposited a hamper within, and he and the station-master bowed profoundly to me likewise, evidently taking me for some exalted personage, possibly the Czar, who, however, was a giant of a man while I was only medium in height. So it must have been someone else.”
“You certainly were a cool hand,” remarked Jim admiringly. “I never could have done that.”
“Nor I, either,” was the chorus of the other boys.
“Just my bloomin’ cheek, as an English pal of mine used to say,” the engineer continued, “and nothing that I’m very proud of now, but it was the only thing that would have pulled me through that fix. No sooner was his Nibs seated in the train than it started.
“It made me rather tired to think that we had been delayed for that big pig of a Russian, though I suppose in the United States a train would have been held for some big-bellied politician with a pull, so that I need not have felt so aggrieved at this happening in darkest Russia. But I looked at the big Russian in disgust nevertheless. Then he saw me sitting quietly near the window opposite. One moment he was a picture of amazement, and then he let a roar out of him that shook things.
“I did not naturally understand what the Russian was saying, so I just had to let him roar, and made a few gestures for myself. I feared at first that he would have a fit of apoplexy, as he grew redder in the face than ever, but having expressed himself to his full satisfaction, with a final threat he sat down. I supposed that I should be shot or sent into exile at the first stop.”