Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/313

Rh while others must take their chances. The second-class passport takes precedence over the third, and in a very summary way at times.

"Suppose Smith has a second-class paderojnia, and Jones one of the third class. Smith reaches a station and finds Jones with a team ready to start. If there are no more horses, the station-master detaches Jones's horses and gives them to Smith; Jones must wait until he can be supplied; it may be an hour, a day, or a week.

"Three horses must always be kept ready for couriers, and the changes made very quickly. If all the horses belonging to a station are out when a lower-class traveller arrives, he must wait till a team returns and has rested. If he is willing to pay something extra rather than wait, he can

be accommodated; the smotretal will obtain horses from the villagers at whatever advance on the regular price that he thinks the traveller will stand. Here is where the station-master has a chance to make something, and he usually makes it.

"The horses are small and shaggy, but they are capable of great speed and endurance. They are never blanketed, even in the coldest weather,