The 'Metskie Tsar' was a big European ruler, he had been in conflict with the 'Angliskie Tsar,' and the latter had been defeated, swept away; the man spoke the word that he used for ships, and made energetic pantomime to express the sinking of a fleet.

Holham, there was nothing for it but to hope that this was a false, groundless rumour, that had somehow crept to the confines of civilisation.

In my saner balanced moments it was possible to disbelieve it, but if you have ever suffered from delirium you will know what raging torments of agony I went through in the nights, how my brain fought and refought that rumoured disaster." The doctor gave a murmur of sympathetic understanding.
"Then," continued Yeovil, "I reached the small Siberian town towards which I had been struggling.

There was a little colony of Russians there, traders, officials, a doctor or two, and some army officers.

I put up at the primitive hotel-restaurant, which was the general gathering- place of the community.