We found her in tears, and frantically dressing for the street. She had not been out since she had recovered from a long illness, and the weather was extremely cold. She said that her husband had been arrested by order of a colonel who lived in the hotel across the street, and that she was going over to talk with him and demand the reason for the arrest. I sent Romanoff with her, and again charged him to unofficially inform the colonel or anybody else concerned of my great interest in the case, and that I would expect a proper trial in case there was a legitimate charge against Captain B----. In other words, that the United States was watching, and that while there would be no interference, Cossack methods would be judged by this affair. Romanoff and Mrs. B---- were gone more than an hour, and when they returned, Romanoff assured me that the colonel had promised to release Captain B----, but Mrs. B---- was still worried. She was well aware of the custom of shooting people first and making explanations afterward. Many innocent persons suffered by this custom. When a mistake was made, the official responsible generally shrugged his shoulders and asked if there were not plenty more people in the world. The reason for the arrest was reported to be that Captain B---- had given a room in our hotel to an officer of Semenoff, when the officer showed an order signed by the Ataman that quarters should be provided. There was but one room in the hotel available--a room which had been occupied by the colonel who had ordered Captain B---- arrested. This colonel had not lived in the room for weeks, but had moved to the hotel across the street, leaving in his room in our hotel a small grip. It was charged that the order for quarters was an old one, and that since it had been signed the officer had had trouble with the Ataman. But Captain B---- did not know this, and accepted the order for quarters for what it appeared to be on its face--still in force. But the principal crime committed by Captain B---- was said to be having allowed the officer out of the good graces of the Ataman, to sleep in a room while the colonel’s bag remained in a closet. It may have been that the bag had been opened, or it may have been that the bag contained documents which would have caused the colonel trouble with the Ataman. But it all appeared to me as a fine piece of subterfuge, if the facts were as given. But one rarely gets the facts in Siberia. Romanoff and I remained with Mrs. B---- through the evening, waiting. When she was not crying dolefully and wringing her hands, she was playing for us on her piano, stopping at times to listen to footsteps in the hall to see if they could be those of her husband, coming back.