“And when will there be some?”

“To-morrow!”

This last reply we took for a piece of playful exaggeration, and demanded the book in which, according to law, the departure of horses is duly inscribed, and from which it is easy to calculate when the first team should be ready to start.  A short calculation proved that we ought to get horses by four o’clock in the afternoon, so we showed the station-keeper various documents signed by the Minister of the Interior and other influential personages, and advised him to avoid all contravention of the postal regulations.

These documents, which proved that we enjoyed the special protection of the authorities, had generally been of great service to us in our dealings with rascally station-keepers; but this station-keeper was not one of the ordinary type.  He was a Cossack, of herculean proportions, with a bullet-shaped head, short-cropped bristly hair, shaggy eyebrows, an enormous pendent moustache, a defiant air, and a peculiar expression of countenance which plainly indicated “an ugly customer.”  Though it was still early in the day, he had evidently already imbibed a considerable quantity of alcohol, and his whole demeanour showed clearly enough that he was not of those who are “pleasant in their liquor.”  After glancing superciliously at the documents, as if to intimate he could read them were he so disposed, he threw them down on the table, and, thrusting his gigantic paws into his capacious trouser-pockets, remarked slowly and decisively, in something deeper than a double-bass voice, “You’ll have horses to-morrow morning.”

Wishing to avoid a quarrel we tried to hire horses in the village, and when our efforts in that direction proved fruitless, we applied to the head of the rural police.  He came and used all his influence with the refractory station-keeper, but in vain.  Hercules was not in a mood to listen to officials any more than to ordinary mortals.  At last, after considerable trouble to himself, our friend of the police contrived to find horses for us, and we contented ourselves with entering an account of the circumstances in the Complaint Book, but our difficulties were by no means at an end.  As soon as Hercules perceived that we had obtained horses without his assistance, and that he had thereby lost his opportunity of blackmailing us, he offered us one of his own teams, and insisted on detaining us until we should cancel the complaint against him.  This we refused to do, and our relations with him became what is called in diplomatic language “extremement tendues.”  Again we had to apply to the police.

My friend mounted guard over the baggage whilst I went to the police office.  I was not long absent, but I found, on my return, that important events had taken place in the interval.  A crowd had collected round the post-station, and on the steps stood the keeper and his post-boys, declaring that the traveller inside had attempted to shoot them!  I rushed in and soon perceived, by the smell of gunpowder, that firearms had been used, but found no trace of casualties.  My friend was tramping up and down the little room, and evidently for the moment there was an armistice.