Dear me, when you are going to drop a remark under a man's chair that is

likely to blow him out through the roof, why don't you put some

expression, some force, some noise unto it that will prepare him? You

shouldn't flip out such a gigantic thing as this in that colorless kind

of a way. You do jolt a person up, so. Go on, now, I'm all right again.

Tell me all about it. I'm all interest--yes, and sympathy, too."

Well, I've looked the ground over, and concluded that the methods of the

Russian patriots, while good enough considering the way the boys are

hampered, are not the best; at least not the quickest. They are trying

to revolutionize Russia from within; that's pretty slow, you know, and

liable to interruption all the time, and is full of perils for the

workers. Do you know how Peter the Great started his army? He didn't

start it on the family premises under the noses of the Strelitzes; no, he

started it away off yonder, privately,--only just one regiment, you know,

and he built to that. The first thing the Strelitzes knew, the regiment

was an army, their position was turned, and they had to take a walk.

Just that little idea made the biggest and worst of all the despotisms

the world has seen. The same idea can unmake it. I'm going to prove it.

I'm going to get out to one side and work my scheme the way Peter did."

This is mighty interesting, Rossmore. What is it you are, going to do?"

I am going to buy Siberia and start a republic."

There,--bang you go again, without giving any notice! Going to buy it?"

196

The American Claimant