He got up on to his seat, his broad back was bent over his horses.
"Well, and how have things been, Nikolai, busy ?" "_Nikak nyet_--not at all.

Very quiet." "No wounded ?" "Nothing at all, _Barin_, for two weeks now." "Have you liked that ?" "_Tak totchno._ Certainly yes." "No, but have you ?" "_Tak totchno, Barin._" Then he turned and gave, for one swift instant, a glance at Trenchard, who was, very clumsily, climbing into the carriage.

Nikolai looked at him gravely.

His round, red face was quite expressionless as he turned back and began to abjure his horses in that half-affectionate, half-abusive and wholly human whispering exclamation that Russians use to their animals.

We started.
I have mentioned in these pages that I had already spent three months with our Otriad at the Front.