This is how the Russians built the line with a rapidity superior, as I
have said, to that of the Americans in the far west, a line that was to
be of use for commerce and for war.

To begin with, the general got together a construction train consisting
of thirty-four wagons. Four of these were two-decked for the officers,
twenty more had two decks and were used by the workmen and soldiers;
one wagon served as a dining room, four as kitchens, one as an
ambulance, one as a telegraph office, one as a forge, one as a
provision store, and one was held in reserve. These were his traveling
workshops and also his barracks in which fifteen hundred workmen,
soldiers and otherwise, found their board and lodging. The train
advanced as the rails were laid. The workmen were divided into two
brigades; they each worked six hours a day, with the assistance of the
country people who lived in tents and numbered about fifteen thousand.
A telegraph wire united the works with Mikhailov, and from there a
little Decauville engine worked the trains which brought along the
rails and sleepers.

In this way, helped by the horizontality of the ground, a day's work
yielded nearly five miles of track, whereas in the plains of the United
States only about half that rate was accomplished. Labor cost little;
forty-five francs a month for the men from the oasis, fifty centimes a
day for those who came from Bokhara.

It was in this way that Skobeleff's soldiers were taken to Kizil Arvat,
and then eighty-four miles beyond to Gheok Tepe. This town did not
surrender until after the destruction of its ramparts and the massacre
of twelve thousand of its defenders; but the oasis of Akhal Tekke was