What 's  keeping  you?"

"Well,  there  is  a  pitched  battle  between  the  Bol-
sheviki  and  the  Cossacks  outside  my  door.  I  do
not  mind  leaving,  but  I  can  not  very  well  risk  hav-
ing the  ambulance  shot  up."  (The  only  way  he
had  of  coming  was  to  drive  himself  down  in  the
huge  truck-ambulance  belonging  to  the  hospital.)
"Well,  it  won't  last  long,"  I  said.  "Come  as  soon
as  things  are  quiet."

"All  right;  good-bye."

At  ten  o'clock  he  telephoned  again.
"There  are  eight  dead  horses  outside  and  things
are  quiet,  but  the  dvornlk  (porter)  says  that  they
have  gone  for  reinforcements.  If  you  can  get  a
fourth  man  from  your  quarter  of  the  town,  I  will
come  down,  because  Harrison  won't  come.  He
gets  nervous  when  there  is  any  shooting,  and  he
says  he  won't  go  out  to-night."

"I  will  telephone  around  to  get  a  fourth,"  I  re-
plied, "and  I  will  let  you  know  in  a  few  minutes."

By  the  time  another  man  had  promised  to  come
and  I  had  Bingham's  telephone  number,  the
"bridge"-party  had  to  be  called  off.
"They  went  away  and  brought  back  their
friends,"  he  told  me  ruefully,  "and  I  am  afraid  it
is  an  all-night  business.  How  about  to-morrow
night?"

"To-morrow  night  will  do,"  I  said.
RUNAWAY  RUSSIA  185

"All  right.  If  these  fools  will  only  stop  shoot-
ing long  enough  I  will  take  the  ambulance  and  be
over  at  eight."

That  "bridge"-party  never  took  place.  For  a
week  the  streets  were  impassable  at  night,  and
when  things  had  become  quieter,  I  had  so  much
work  piled  up  that  I  had  to  stop  playing  "bridge."

On  another  occasion  we  were  forced  to  stay  at
the  house  of  a  friend  until  four  in  the  morning.
