We had just settled down to make ourselves comfortable when the train stopped. We took no notice of this, as trains in Russia stop at all sorts of times and places for no apparent reason. However, this time there was a reason : something had gone wrong with our carriage which compelled the officials to ask us to get out. The coach was taken off, the brakes would not act. As there was no other coach available, the problem we had to face was how to find room for eight or nine persons in a train already over full, with people hanging on to buffers, steps of carriages, and also on the footplate and tender of the engine. A saloon coach, formerly used on the Siberian railway, with accommodation for six people, was part of the train. It already had six passengers, but we asked to go in and were allowed to do so, and travelled for twenty hours, fifteen of us in a saloon built for six. We had no cooking utensils for tea making, so once more got through by borrowing first the Samovar, then cups and knives. Unfortunately, we could not borrow sleeping places, so when night came we loosened our clothes, wrapped ourselves in our coats and lay down on the floor with leather bags for our pillows. None of us suffered much, except from stiffness. I caught cold, which is usual for me whenever I sleep in abnormal places, and I only tell this story to controvert the lying
12
