Page:Albert Beaumont - Heroic Story of the Czecho-Slovak Legions - 1919.djvu/13

 tearing, and kicking each other. They are separated in the rough-andtumble, both of them badly mauled and bleeding. The Russians pay no attention to what is going on, but the Austrian senior officer, who is vaguely in charge, and voluntarily assumes a commanding attitude, intervenes. The two prisoners are two lieutenants of the Austro-Hungarian army, the one a Czech, the other a German-Austrian. The Austrian had been all along insulting the Russians whenever he saw them, and at the station he had called them curs and beasts.

The result was a fight between him and the Czech, who could not bear to hear the Russians insulted. The Austrian senior captain severely admonishes the Czech and takes out his pencil to write a report. “I shall denounce you when we return“, he says stiffly. “Denounce me as much as you like“, says the little Czech lieutenant. “We are in Siberia now, and if any of you continue to insult the Russians I shall do what I have been doing to him.“ The Russians at last interfere. Scenes like this happen too often, and the Czechs are put in separate cars, or in separate trains, to keep them from getting into a quarrel with the Magyars on Austrians.

Captain “N.“ continued his story as follows:

Once we were about 500 yards on the other side of the Russian hill we were safe, and the Russians made signs to us to keep on marching to the nearest village a mile or two away. We trudged along joyfully, some on the road and others through the woods. Some of our men, unfortunately, had been wounded by shells after the Austrians had turned their guns on us. We helped them along or carried them. When we got to the village we found that the divisional commander was there. We did not see him at once, and were told to stay where we were till evening. The surrender had taken place before noon. We used what rations we had with us, and got some from the Russians. We tried to speak to the Russians, and to explain to them that we had voluntarily surrendered, but it was no use: they did not understand Czech, and we could not speak Russian. A large number of Austrians from the 27th and 59th Regiments also poured into the village. Some Russian officers must have understood, though, as orders came to keep us separated from the Austrians.

Towards evening matters improved slightly. We were able to speak with some Czech volunteers in the Russian army, who welcomed us warmly and called us brothers. The Russian colonel then came and spoke to us and treated us very kindly. He was a fine, dear old man, and we liked him at once. He kept us officers at the village for the night, and told us he would send us the following morning to the