Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 2.djvu/403

387 OUK LAST DAYS IN SIBEKIA 387 "Where do you order me to go?" inquired our driver, reining in his horses and turning half around in his seat. "To a hotel," I said. " There 's a hotel here, is n't there?" "There used to be," he replied, doubtfully. "Whether there 's one now or not, God knows ; but if your high no- bility has no friends to go to, we '11 see." We were provided with letters of introduction to several well-known citizens of Minusinsk, and I had no doubt that at the house of any one of them we should be cordially and hospitably received; but it is rather awkward and embar- rassing to have to present a letter of introduction, before daylight in the morning, to a gentleman whom you have just dragged out of bed ; and I resolved that, if we should fail to find a hotel, I would have the driver take us to the Government post-station. We had no legal right to claim shelter there, because we were traveling with "free" horses and without a padarozhnaija; but experience had taught me that a Siberian post-station master, for a suitable consider- ation, will shut his eyes to the strictly legal aspect of any case and admit the justice and propriety of any claim. After turning three or four corners our driver stopped in front of a large two-story log building, near the center of the town, which he said "used to be " a hotel. He pounded and banged at an inner courtyard door until he had roused all the dogs in the neighborhood, and was then informed by a sleepy and exasperated servant that this was not a hotel but a private house, and that if we continued to bat- ter down people's doors in that way in the middle of the night we should n't need a hotel, because we would be con- ducted by the police to suitable apartments in a commodi- ous jail. This was not very encouraging, but our driver, after exchanging a few back-handed compliments with the ill-tempered servant, took us to another house in a different part of the town, where he banged and pounded at another door with undiminished vigor and resolution. The man who responded on this occasion said that he did keep