The climax of these attempts to escape was such a story as has never been heard of outside “Alice in Wonderland,” or the “Arabian Nights.” After several other enterprises had been frustrated by difficulties about food, some officers conceived the idea of carrying with them on their own persons enough to last them into China. We used to compute the distance at nearly two hundred miles. Our maps were very primitive, and our only idea of the route was to strike south. The officers began to collect tinned meats gradually, so as not to excite suspicion. They also managed to get hold of several pounds of a hard sort of sausage, called in German, “Dauerwurst.” Besides, they reasoned out that, as they were not to go near any building all the way, they would be obliged to wear enough clothes to keep them warm while sleeping in the open. So they started off, bulging mountainous with the extra clothes they wore, swathed round with sausage, packed tight with tins of corned beef and Bismarck herring, till they looked more like knights in a pantomime than anything else. The Russians soon discovered that some prisoners had escaped, and ordered the officers out in order to count how many they were. Arithmetic is a thing the Russian does not shine at; the officers did their best to create confusion by continually moving about and making a noise, and in the end the Russians, instead of counting seven too few, made it twenty-five too many. They did not know what to do, so they sent in a report that they had counted twenty-five too many, which they explained by supposing that twenty-five officers were away ill in hospital. This calculation was beyond me, but as I also am weak at mathematics, I leave it where it is. Meanwhile the Cossacks had been alarmed, and they started off in pursuit, plunging through the camp on their hardy Siberian ponies, and we soon saw their scattered parties scouring the hills. Even a fox-hunt will seem tame to me now, after I have smelt the excitement of a man-hunt. The fugitives had bribed a soldier into letting them have a sledge and horses, but that only took them a day’s journey. Then they proceeded on foot, sleeping by day and marching by night. In that glittering, smooth expanse of snow their tracks were easily picked up, and, burdened as they were, they could not hope to shake off their pursuers. The Cossacks surrounded them, but dared not attack them, and so the two parties lay for some time intently watching one another. Finally the fugitives stood up and showed that they were unarmed, and the Cossacks were emboldened to approach them. Then began a characteristic scene. They began trying to bribe the Cossacks into letting them go. But the Cossacks were coy, and made a great show of offended honour, and by artful bargaining put the price up until they had wrung the last kopeck out of the fugitives. Then, penniless, but still rich in clothes and sausages, the prisoners were ordered to march back to camp.