I waited patiently to see how they proposed to solve this problem—­did they wish a bold, open, frontal attack or an underground plot?  Nothing is very astonishing now, and we have all the resourcefulness of condottieri, with a certain modern respectability added.  But they were sensible people, and did not dream of the impossible.  They supposed, they said, that I knew that the Russians had now full control of the Board of Revenue.  Perhaps, if their commander could be approached in the proper way, the matter could be very rapidly attended to.  The treasure could be seized in the name of the Russian Government and everyone could get a share.  That is what they said.

At first I thought of refusing point-blank, for I was rather tired of these adventures; but the men were so persistent, and I had been so irritated by the pious insincerity of my own chief, that in the end I told them that I would see what could be done, although the matter did not interest me very much.  I privately again thought of what our old doyen says, “Ce n’est pas pour rien qu’on connait les Russes,” and wondered how long negotiations would last.

Of course it was a wretchedly long business, and before long I regretted bitterly that I had not been more hard-hearted.  I managed to communicate with L——­ that same day through R——­, and explained to him as well as I could the whole affair.  I found the Russian Commander-in-Chief a sly old fox, for his first idea was to thank me for the information and have the whole Treasury searched; if necessary, to dig down to a depth of twenty feet or so with the help of a regiment or two of infantry.  That was his idea.  In the end we managed to convince him that this was foolish, and that there must be places which his soldiers could not reach even by prodding down with their bayonets and spades to great depths.  Secret chambers cannot be easily discovered even in this way, we said.  That made L——­ very angry, for no reason apparently but that the affair seemed a huge bother and trouble.  He said in reply that the Japanese had taken everything in any case, and that this was going to be a fool’s quest if he went on with it.  Also, he would not listen to any arrangements being made and put in writing regarding the proportions to be paid to everyone if a find was actually made.  Indeed, this last idea irritated him so much that he angrily said that we were deliberately plotting to take away the property of the Russian Government—­property which the Russian Government could not afford to lose, and did not intend to lose, either.  He even added that this was a city of robbers, and that people would not keep to their own territory, but were always trying to trespass.  This made us laugh so much that he suddenly changed his manner, and said that the whole question was a serious one and would have to be referred home by telegraph.  Otherwise he could not authorise any payments.  K——­, who was present, replied sarcastically that perhaps he would like to refer the question direct to the Czar, and begged him to be cautious in such a very important affair!