Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-16

deserter with cOal-blackened face, un-
trimmed beard and decidedly 0dorOus
clothes. She dumped the Turk inside
the locker, fastened the lid and ran
back to the kitchen.
The Turkish deserter fell back with
some violence on the lady, already in
the locker. and both received bad
fright In the darkness. Yet the lid
could not be removed from the inside,
and their calls We're unheard.
Eventually the woman tainted. The
Turk, tired after a long spell of
cramped wakefulness in the bunkers
and the kitchen, composed himself
philosophically and went to sleep.
When the Batoum was beyond the
Bosphorus and all danger of search.
the captain opened the locker to re-
lease the woman. He inserted an arm.
and jumped with fright when. instead
Of a woman, he produced a coal-black.
ened man.
The woman revived when taken
intofthe fresh air; but / should inn
agine that never again viii she be.
come a. stOwaway.
THE chief engineer, fearing that
- some informer among the passen-
gers might notice us, still kept White
and myself under cover all day, al
though we took our usual exercise on
deck each evening. The other stow
aways were mingling with legitimate
passengers. whose bedding was spread
over the matches.
All the stowaways, except ourselves.
were blackmailed with threats of he.
travail. We were under the protection
Of the ships officers: and, more inn
portant STILL we carried revolvers. In
any case, Belshevik Bill, the greaser.
was our good friend and a power
among the crew.
On the second evening at sea the
firemen stole case of arak from the
cargo, drank themselves amuck, and
told Josef they were far too busy over
private concerns TO trouble about
stocking the furnaces.
The fires sank lower and lower, the
engine power dwindled. the propeller
revolved more and more slowly. Fl
nally we came to almost dead halt
in the middle of the Back Sea.
Throughout that night we crawled
forward with a minimum number of
revolutions, and even this slight prog.
ress was possible only because the
ships officers took turns in the fur
mace room and acted as stokers. Next
morning the sobered f1remen agreed to
let bygones be bygones and resumed
work.
The rest of that nightmare voyage
included only one incident worth re-
cording. On the morning of the
fourth day, when we should have been
within the sight of land, the horizon
In every direction was blank.
The Turkish merchant who had
chartered the Bartoum was impatient
to reach Odessa and asked the captain
for our position. The ancient tugged
at his white beard and said that he
was not quite sure, but would take
soundings. These revealed shallow
water, showing. according to the
chart, that the ship must be some dis
lance off her course.
The old captain was astonished, and
called the first mate into consultation.
Belaef's calculations with sextant and
compass proved us to he heading sew
eral degrees too far east, so that the
line of sailing would have taken us
nearer Sebas topol than Odessa.
Thereupon the captain handed over
the ships direction to the first mate.
We edged northwards and sighted
Odessa at noon of the next day.
Like the rest of the Ukraine, Odessa
had exchanged bolshevism for Austro-
German domination. Already, when
we passed through the docks. it was
easy to see who were the masters.
Austrian customs officers controlled
the quayS; Austrian and German sol
diers guarded the storehouses; Aus
trian sentries stood at the dock gates
and sometimes demanded to see civil
ians' passports
Had we not been vouched for by the
uniforms OF the Batoum's third engi-
neer and third mate, the sentries
s..t.t Ill EaNr ct. Nnd n I'D
once outside the gates, we hired a
cab and drove to an address previously
given us-that Of the sister and
mother of Russian professor at Rob
ert College, Constantinople.
A MONTH in hiding at Odessa
a (where. weakened by hardships
we contracted iaundice and inf1uenza)
enabled us to make arrangements to
sail to Varna by n Red Cross ship
Thence we travelled by automobile to
Salonikl.
As we climbed the steps leading up
to British army headquarters in Sa
loniki, warmly expectant of welcome
by reason of our information from
South Russia. an orderly pointed out
that this entrance was reserved for
Big Noises and By-No-Mea MS Little
Noises. We swerved aside and entered
an unpretentious side door, labeled
"OfFicers Only"
"Woier want?" asked a London
Tommy. who sat at a desk inside 1t.
I'VE want to report to Maj. Green
tabs OF tire intelligence department"
The Tommy looked not too con-
| temptuously at our sunken cheeks,
| our shapeless hats. our torn, creased,
mud.spotted tatterdemalion clothes
and almost sdmiringly at Whites
| check waistcoat.
Nah look ere. civvies," he in
structed. year speak English well
| inuf. Carncher read it7 The notice
says 'Ofacers only an II means only
officers, Dagoes ave ter use the yen