Another table, in a far corner, was occupied by a poorly-dressed old woman in black, dusty and evidently tired.

A covered basket stood on a chair at her elbow, she was eating an unwholesome-looking "knoedel" or boiled potato ball, and half a pint of beer stood before her still untouched.

As for the Cossack and Dumnoff, they had finished their meal.

The former was smoking a cigarette through a mouth-piece made by boring out the well-dried leg-bone of a chicken and was drinking nothing.

Dumnoff had before him a small glass of the common whisky known as "corn-brandy" and was trying to give it a flavour resembling the vodka of his native land by stirring pepper into it with the blade of an old pocket-knife.