Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/188

176 the narrow streets of the Japanese section and thus made their way to the Svetlanskaya in the centre of the town.

Amid the wild flames, the tumult of falling houses and the rolling clouds of smoke there coursed gangs of men like wild jackals, composed of the scum of the town, the members of monarchist organizations and hunghutzes who had gathered from the mountains and the deserted shores of the Amur and had been sheltering in the city. In several quarters armed fights took place, and on this day no one counted the number of the killed and the wounded. Hate, hidden for a long time, the desire for revenge, the lust for blood and spoil, all had at this hour of crime and disaster full liberty of expression. By night three-fourths of Vladivostok lay in ruins. The glare of the gradually lessening fires trembled on the sky, while clouds of acrid smoke drew a veil over the moonlight that had sought to make the city beautiful.

Late in the evening, when I returned to my car, I could still hear the wild shouts of the raging crowd, the carbine shots, the noise of falling buildings and the nervous whistles of the soldiers who were patrolling the streets.

On January 12th I returned to Harbin, where the details of the Vladivostok catastrophe were already fully known. As soon as I had made my report to the Board of the Union, I went to see General Ivanoff to inform him about the happenings in Vladivostok and to remind him that the same fate could visit Harbin in the event of tactical errors on his part. However, the General refused me an interview, so that I had to leave my message with his aide-de-camp and request that he convey it to his chief.

On my return to my residence I found Colonel Zaremba and Captain von Ziegler waiting for me. After