We need not have stayed in Moscow had we not been delayed an accident a little way beyond Manchuli the border town between China and Russia. A tremendous storm flooded the' lines, Suddenly the engine stopped and backed. We retreated slowly to a village where we stuck for 12 hours never knowing for certain when we would start, Thinking it might be any moment we did not dare explore much, the only food we could buy was eggs and course brown broad, Just round about we found shells, hand grenades and numerous old bones. The village itself was in ruins and there were large discused barracks dropping to pieces. One of the villagers told us when we grumbled at the delay that we might, consider ourselves lucky. The last time a similar accident had happened, the engine driver had failed to back in time, the derailed and only one-third of the passengers. saved.
Suddenly in the midst of our bargaining the bell would ring twice and. we would scuttle back to our carriages, fearing to be left behind land be forced to wait a week for the next train, when the bell rang three times the drain steamed out.
Besides these halts we stopped twice daily at bigger stations for 30 minutes o longer.
Avrestaurant car available to all lasses was attached to the train.
Being dearer and not providing fas gogd as the food the peasants drought, few of us used it.
In Peking I had also been warned against the people T might meet and the likelihood of being robbed. I lost nothing and mostly: met. very pleasant people. At first not a ingle soul in my carriage knew any language but Russian of which Knew not a word. Yet we managed to converse by means of gestures and pictures and here and there someone from another carriage intrepreting.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.