[40] Policemen have the right to use cabs thus, gratis, for the transportation of intoxicated persons, each cabman being obliged to convey him to the boundary of that particular police district; after which, he is trans-shipped to another reluctant cabman; and so on. XIX By some wonderful means the half-skipper found the left-handed man rather speedily, only they had not yet put him to bed, but he still lay on the floor of the corridor and complained to the Englishman: "I must say a couple of words to the Emperor without fail." The Englishman hastened to Count Kleinmichel and made a row: "How can they treat him so? He has a human soul," says he, "even if he has only a sheepskin coat." For this bit of reasoning they immediately chased the Englishman away,--because he had dared to mention the human soul. And then some one said to him: "You had better go to Cossack Platoff--he has simple feelings." The Englishman got at Platoff, who was now reclining on his couch once more. Platoff listened to him and recalled the left-handed man. "Certainly, my friend," says he, "I am very intimately acquainted with him--I have even tweaked him by the hair--only I know not how I can assist him in his present unhappy plight, because I am now entirely out of the service and have received full pension, so they no longer respect me; but do you run quickly to Commandant Skobeleff; he is in power, and also experienced in this sort of thing--he will do something." And the half-skipper went to Skobeleff, and told him everything; what the left-handed man's illness was, and how he had contracted it. Says Skobeleff: "I understand this complaint, only the Germans cannot cure it; but some sort of a doctor of the ecclesiastical vocation is needed here, because those fellows have been reared on such examples, and they can give aid. I will immediately send thither the Russian doctor, Martyn-Solsky." But when Martyn-Solsky arrived, the left-handed man was breathing his last, because he had cracked his neck on the pavement, and could utter intelligibly only these words: "Tell the Emperor that the English do not clean their guns with brick-dust. Let them not clean their guns so among us; otherwise--God preserve us from war--they will not be fit to fire." And with this assurance the left-handed man crossed himself and died. Then Martyn-Solsky immediately went and reported this to Count Tchernyscheff in order that he might announce it to the Emperor. But Count Tchernyscheff shouted at him: "Stick to your emetics and cathartics and don't meddle in what is none of your business--we have Generals in Russia to attend to that!"