The amusing story of an American who set out to eclipse the
round-the-world record. The author, himself a globe-trotter of
many years’ standing, describes him as “the most extraordinary
man I ever met,” and after reading the narrative we fancy the
reader will be inclined to agree with him.
I met him at Dalny, in August, 1903--the year before war broke out
between Japan and Russia.
I had been travelling in Manchuria, and had come down from Mukden only
just in time to catch, by the skin of my teeth, the weekly steamer to
Japan. The train was more than an hour late, and the drosky that I
hired at the station--with my luggage piled in anyhow by the Chinese
porters--had been driven by the dishevelled moujik in charge at a pace
that laughed at speed limits and scorned such trifling obstacles as
ruts and holes nearly a foot in depth.
As we tore up to the steamer’s berth at the great wharf, that was later
to prove of such inestimable value to the Japanese, the driver shouting
and lashing his three horses into foam, the gangway was on the point of
being lowered, and I had horrible visions of having to spend a week in
that most dead of dead-alive towns, in which I already seemed to know
every house.
With commendable courtesy, however, the officials permitted me to get
myself and effects on board, and a moment later we were steaming out
into the fine harbour.
The steamer was the _Mongolia_, which had the misfortune six months
later to be the first Russian vessel captured by the Japanese.
I was leaning over the rail, watching the hills receding from view,
when I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder, and on looking round was
confronted by a rather sallow-faced, wiry-looking individual of medium
height, with steel-grey eyes that seemed to pierce through mine clean
into my brain.
[Illustration: “THE DRIVER SHOUTING AND LASHING HIS THREE HORSES INTO
FOAM.”]
“Say, d’you speak English?” he asked me.
I admitted that, being an Englishman, I had a moderate command of the
language.
“Well, I ain’t English, I’m Amur’can,” he replied.
“So I see.”
“Well, say now, how’d you know I was Amur’can?”
“By your accent; one would scarcely make the mistake of taking you for
anything else.”
“Well, say, you’re smart enough to be an Amur’can, too, at that rate.
Anyhow, I’m mighty glad to see you, for since I parted with my friend,
who went to Port Arthur, I ain’t had a chance of hearin’ a language
that anyone could understand. I’m out to beat the record round the
world for the _New York_ ----, and if I only make it in Japan I’ll beat
the previous best by exactly twelve days.”
He then related to me how he had left New York and travelled
_viâ_ Liverpool, London, Dover, Ostend, Berlin, Moscow, and the
Trans-Siberian Railway to Dalny; and here he was, bound for Nagasaki,
Japan, where he would take the train for Yokohama, and thence travel by
the _Empress of India_ to Vancouver, by the Canadian Pacific Railway to
Quebec, and from there back to New York.
“I’m going to publish a book on the trip, and I’ve got about enough
information to fill it already. Say, though, my wife’ll be glad to see
me back again in New York. She’s a beautiful woman, my wife. She’s
tall and dark, and has a straight-front figure--a woman can’t be
fashionable without a straight-front figure--and when she walks she
leans forward like a kangaroo and does the glide. Ever seen it? I tell
you, sir, there’s nuthin’ like it; and it takes a New York girl to do
it properly, and there ain’t many girls in New York as can lick my wife
at walkin’. I’ll introduce you to her sometime if I ever see you in New
York, an’ if you don’t say she’s about the slickest thing you ever saw
in skirts, well, you ain’t much of a judge o’ weather.
“Say, now that I come to look at you, I’ve seen you before, I guess,”
he rattled on. “Wasn’t you the chap that come rushin’ on to the
platform at Mukden just as our train was movin’ out of the station?”
I acknowledged that I was. Owing to the impossibility of obtaining any
reliable information in the town, several miles away, as to the time
of departure of the trains, I had reached the station, to my great
chagrin, just in time to see the _train de luxe_ move away from the
platform. I had thus been compelled to take a slow and very dirty train
three hours later, and hence the reason of my nearly missing the boat
at Dalny.
“Looks as if cuttin’ things fine was rather in your line, eh? Say,
though, you couldn’t take risks like that if you was doin’ a record
round the world. You nearly missed this boat. I was watchin’ you, and
if you’d been on my job you’d have perspired like a pig as you was
drivin’ up to the wharf, with that woolly-faced pirate yellin’ and
thrashin’ them horses to soapsuds, and the steamer whistle blowin’ and
the whole durned push hollerin’ and monkeyin’ with the ropes of the
gangway. You’d have had your heart in your boots, young feller, if
you’d been on my lay-out and seen how near you came to botchin’ up the
whole job.
“And talkin’ of botchin’ jobs, if this steamer doesn’t arrive in
Nagasaki in time to catch the eight o’clock train on Thursday, I’m
done. That train’ll just give me time to catch the _Empress_ at
Yokohama. If I miss it there ain’t another boat until the _Gaelic_ for
San Francisco, nine days later, and as that’s a slower route I’ll be
fourteen days longer than if I catch the _Empress_. Gee whiz, though,
it’ll break my wife’s heart if I don’t clip that twelve days off the
record. She and I figured this whole thing out together months before I
started.
“Now, this boat’s due to arrive at Nagasaki at eleven o’clock, and
if she does no better’n that there’s no power on earth can help me;
the game’s lost. Guess I’ll have to try and square the captain to get
her into harbour by seven o’clock. If I can’t do that my wife’ll be
heartbroken; she’s set her heart on this. You ought to see her; she’s
the finest girl in New York--tall and slender, with dark eyes and hair,
and she’s got a straight-front figure. But, say, I guess I’ll have to
try and square the captain; I ain’t a nervous man, but I’m gettin’
nervous about this.”
With that he took me on one side, where there was no possibility of any
eavesdropping, and, drawing his watch from his pocket, said, “You see
that watch? How much do you suppose it’s worth?”
I looked at it closely. It appeared to be a handsome gold-cased,
centre-seconds hunter, but, after the American fashion, the gold was
not hallmarked. I confessed that I could form no idea of its value, but
it appeared to me to be an expensive one.
“It’s a most difficult thing for anyone but an expert to tell the value
of a watch, and you aren’t the only one to think this is somethin’
choice,” said my new acquaintance. “Now you’ve got a whole lot to
learn, and I’m goin’ to put you up to a tip that’ll save you a pile of
money. There’s not many experts on watches to be met with travellin’,
and most people would think this worth fifty dollars at least. That’s
where they’re wrong. I buy these watches by the dozen, and they only
cost me one dollar and twenty cents each that way. They’re gold-washed,
but they look like solid gold. I always have one on my chain; it’s no
good havin’ it anywhere else. It must be on the chain you’re wearin’,
and when the time comes for business you’ve got to tenderly draw it out
of your pocket as if it was somethin’ you valued more than your life.
“Now, when I started out from Moscow I bought a second-class ticket,
and I got into the best unoccupied first-class compartment I saw on the
train. After a while the conductor comes along to examine the tickets.
I handed him mine. He couldn’t speak a word of English, but he gave me
to understand by pretty good actin’ that I’d have to clear out into the
other end of the train.
“Not bein’ a bad hand at actin’ myself, I was right _in_ it. I gently
pulled my watch from my pocket--it was one like this I now have on
me--and showed him clearly that I intended to give it to him when we
reached Irkutsk if he let me stay where I was. I repeated the word
Irkutsk several times, each time touchin’ his pocket.
“Well, sirree, you ought to have been there to see his face when he
caught sight of that watch! His eyes bulged out of his head so you
could hang your hat on ’em, and to show what he felt like in his heart
he took hold of my hand and shook it.
“After that he was like a mother to me all the way. Other compartments
were filled up, but I had mine to myself always. Every time I passed
him I gave him a wink and tapped my watch-pocket, and he switched on
the nicest smile he kept in stock.
“Gee whiz, though, comin’ across Siberia the inside of that train was
hotter’n the gates of Hades, and every day that feller would come to my
room two or three times to see if he couldn’t do something to make me
more comfortable.
“At Irkutsk I handed over the watch, and either his joy at receivin’ it
or his sorrow at partin’ with me was so great that he tried to kiss me.
“Irkutsk is where they change trains, and I met an Englishman on the
platform who lived in Port Arthur; he was goin’ back there by way of
Dalny. He had been on a holiday to England, and was comin’ back on
third-class trains, as he had spent about all his money, and had only
just enough to skin through third-class. When I found he knew the
country and could talk Russian, I invited him to come along with me; I
told him I’d fix things up all right.
“Well, by and by the conductor comes along, same as the other had done.
There we were, both in a first-class compartment, one with a second
and the other with a third-class ticket. I didn’t have need to do any
dumb show this time, for my friend, who spoke the lingo, did all the
gassin’, and told him there was a nice present waitin’ for him when
Dalny was reached if we could stay where we were, and when I tenderly
took another watch out of my pocket and looked at it as though it was
the only thing I’d ever loved on earth, he was as much overcome with
joy as number one had been.
“Well, that watch fixed it just as I knew it would. We both stayed
where we were, and when, at Dalny, I handed it over to the conductor,
I calculated those two watches, worth two dollars and forty cents, had
saved me about one hundred and twenty-five dollars.
“That Englishman was as chock-full of knowledge about Manchuria as an
egg is full of meat, and I got enough information out of him to write
up the whole trip across Russia and Siberia.
“Now you see the point I’m gettin’ at. There’s more of them watches in
my bag, besides this one on my chain, and I’d like to see the captain
of this ship richer by one of ’em, provided he does somethin’ to earn
such a valuable present as he’ll consider it, until he gets to pryin’
into the works and askin’ experts’ opinions about it; but by that time
I’ll be a long way off and it ’ain’t likely as I’ll ever see him again.
There’s one disadvantage about this game that’s worth remarkin’--you
can’t play it on the same man twice.
“As soon as I came aboard this ship and found out from the steward
the time she gets to Nagasaki, I saw another watch would have to go,
and that the captain o’ the ship would be the fortunate possessor.
There’s a difficulty in the way, as he can’t speak English; and I can’t
approach him through the steward, as that would give the captain away,
but I’ve discovered there’s a Russian lady in the saloon, whom the
captain’s already gettin’ on with like a house on fire.
“She speaks English with the prettiest accent you ever heard, and I was
talkin’ to her for half an hour in the harbour before you showed up.
I’ve already told her what I’m doin’, and got her quite worked up about
it, an’ I’ve decided she’s the one to work the captain for me. There
she is now, comin’ out on deck. Excuse me; there’s no time to be lost;
I’ll get hold of her before the captain sees her.”
As they walked up and down the deck talking animatedly together, I
could see my new acquaintance was making a deeper impression every
minute. Once a few sentences reached me, and I chuckled inwardly.
“She’ll be broken-hearted if I fail to make it.... I’ll introduce
you to her if you come to New York. She’ll like you and you’ll like
her. She’s tall and dark, with big black eyes, and she’s got a
straight-front figure and a----” I had to make a guess at the rest, for
they had turned the corner by the wheel-house before the sentence was
finished.
I never doubted what the result of his interview would be. Already I
felt that the arrival of the _Mongolia_ at Nagasaki by seven o’clock
on Thursday morning was the only thing at present to live for. I was
completely dominated with enthusiasm for the success of this man’s
undertaking, and felt certain he would as surely win the Russian lady’s
sympathy and co-operation in his project as he had already secured mine.
After half an hour he came back to me.
“That little woman’s all right. She’s made o’ good enough clay to be
Amur’can, an’ says she’ll do everythin’ she can to help me. She’s gone
to call the captain now.”
Soon she appeared with the captain, talking in the most animated manner
to him and punctuating every sentence with most expressive gestures.
Then they came together towards us and she said, “I haf ze captain told
what you say off your great journey, and he tell me it iss impossible
we come to Nagasaki so early unless he burn extra fifty tons of coal.
Ze captain say if you pay ze coal he can do it, but if you not pay ze
coal it iss impossible, but ze captain he like verry much to help you.”
To this my travelling companion made reply, “Madam, will you please
tell the captain that the cost of the extra fifty tons of coal is but a
trifle, and I’ll do a good deal more than pay for that. I am so anxious
to catch that train that if the captain will bring the ship into the
harbour by seven o’clock I’ll make him a present of my watch.”
The lady interpreted this. The captain shrugged his shoulders, then
he looked up at the funnel, from which great rolling convolutions of
thick black smoke were belching, and he let his eye run along the line
of reek floating lazily in the cobalt astern for many miles--almost,
it seemed, to where the yellow, sun-baked Manchurian hills were
disappearing below the horizon--his brows knitted in thought.
Before he had finished his cogitations the would-be breaker of records
put his hand into the left pocket of his waistcoat and drew out his
watch. He carefully removed the chamois skin bag, soiled sufficiently
to show it had long protected the treasure it covered, and holding the
watch, which looked a perfect beauty as it caught the sun, in the palm
of his hand, he addressed himself straight to the captain.
“Captain, I _must_ catch that train, and if you’ll help me to do it,
sir, my watch shall be yours before I leave the ship. Ain’t it a
beauty?” and he held it out for admiration.
All this he said in a manner that carried conviction with it. The lady
interpreted again, but even that seemed unnecessary. The captain had
capitulated, and from that moment the result lay in little doubt. The
success or failure of this man’s trip had hung in the balance, and the
issue was decided by a five-shilling watch glittering in the sun on the
deck of a Russian steamer in the Yellow Sea.
Being in the secret, I could feel only admiration at the
record-breaker’s sang-froid and the clever and dramatic manner in which
he played his part.
The captain smiled and made a gesture of deprecation, but his eyes told
us that he meant that watch should be his, and presently he went below
to give directions to the chief engineer. From that moment the black
smoke rolled out of the funnel thicker than before, hanging over the
steamer’s wake clear to the horizon.
The record-breaker contemplated it and the unrippled seas with joy.
We went up into the fo’c’s’le, and as we leaned over the bow and saw
the speed at which the sharp prow was cleaving the glassy water,
sending thin feathers of spray high up along the steamer’s trim and
tapering sides, his enthusiasm knew no bounds, and his praises of
“God’s country” and his wife became almost dithyrambic.
All next day, as we steamed past the archipelago of rocks and barren
islands that fringes the coast of Korea, the sea remained calm as a
pond, and when at half-past six o’clock on Thursday morning we dropped
anchor off the quarantine station at Nagasaki all doubt seemed to
be at an end. There was some delay, however, as, though the doctors
quickly came on board, made their examinations, and gave us a clean
bill of health, it takes time to get under way again, enter the
harbour, and take up a berth amongst the shipping this bustling port
always contains. We anchored at seven-twenty. The record-breaker knew
nothing about the place, and it is a long way to the station. I knew
it well, however, and, as I felt as keen on his catching that train as
he did himself, I chartered a _sampan_ and had all our luggage lowered
into it, whilst he went up on to the bridge to express his thanks and
present the watch to the captain. I saw him take it from his pocket
and make a little speech as he handed it over, and I saw the captain
bow his thanks. Then he shook hands, and in another moment he was
beside me and we were being rapidly pulled to the landing-place, or
_hatoba_.
[Illustration: “’AIN’T IT A BEAUTY?’ AND HE HELD IT OUT FOR
ADMIRATION.”]
There was not a moment to lose. It was past seven-thirty, and a good
twenty minutes to the station. Hastily bidding the _sampan_ to wait
with my luggage, I engaged rickshaws and we were off at full speed. We
reached the station at seven-fifty-five. Having Japanese money on me I
paid the rickshaws, whilst he bought his ticket with money he had got
exchanged by the steamer’s purser.
He hastily shook hands, thanked me, and got into the train just one
moment before it left.
The watch had _really_ done it, but by actually less than a minute, and
if I had not been there to help him he would have failed after all. He
promised to write me from Yokohama, but this he never did. The last I
saw of him he was waving his hat out of the window to me till the train
was out of sight.
The last I heard of him was a few weeks later, when I read in an
American Press telegram that he had won his spurs and had beaten the
previous best round the world by exactly twelve days.
[Illustration: A White Woman in Cannibal-Land.]