prisoners, one English and one American. With some
difficulty a meeting was arranged. Two officers and a
sergeant from the Allied side and Reinstein and these two
prisoners from the Russian, met on a bridge midway
between the opposing lines. The conversation seemed
to have been mostly an argument about working-class
conditions in America, together with reasons why the Allies
should go home and leave Russia alone. Finally the Allied
representatives (I fancy Americans) asked Reinstein to come
with them to Archangel and state his case, promising him
safe conduct there and back. By this time two Russians had
joined the group, and one of them offered his back as a
desk, on which a safe-conduct for Reinstein was written.
Reinstein, who showed me the safe-conduct, doubted its
validity, and said that anyhow he could not have used it
without instructions from Moscow. When it grew dusk they
prepared to separate. The officers said to the prisoners,
"What? Aren't you coming back with us?" The two shook
their heads decidedly, and said, "No, thank you."


I learnt that some one was leaving the National next day to
go to Kharkov, so that I should probably be able to get a
room. After drinking tea with Reinstein till pretty late, I
went home, burrowed into a mountain of all sorts of clothes,
and slept a little.


In the morning I succeeded in making out my claim to
the room at the National, which turned out to be a very