2
ad beaten up a navigator and been fired from a freight ship would want to cross the Channel, we do not understand any more than so many of our hero's actions.
Another perplexing fact is how this frivolous young man was able to become acquainted with the world-famous scientist; what is particularly obscure is how he was able to convince the aged and reticent professor to play, even for very small stakes, macao, a game of chance prohibited in many countries. We must resign ourselves to ignorance of these details. Allegedly the whole thing began when the professor became seasick on deck. Gorchev offered him a pleasant-tasting lemon-cognac-sodium bicarbonate drink of his own concoction. The professor recovered, and asked the young man who he was, and from where he had come.
"My name is Ivan Gorchev, twenty-one-year-old by profession, and son of the brother of Baron Gorchev of the Tsar's Chamber, from the family of Nasya Goryodin. My father was a captain in the guard and my uncle, as the military commander of the Yustvesti Verstkov, defended Odessa against the rebellious naval forces."
Naturally, not one word of all this was true. But the gullibility of very young girls and aged scientists is apparently boundless. The professor put on his pince-nez. "So, you are an emigrant."
"Definitely Professorovitch Uncleushka," Gorchev answered, with a sigh. "Once in high spirits, my father gave ten thousand roubles to the Tsar's ballet... And he was flown to Tsarskoe Selo in a troika with a gold escutcheon on it... Oh, kontusovka! Oh, Volga, if only I could be there once again..."
"But listen, you can't remember Russia if you are only twenty-one!"
"That makes it all the more difficult, Uncleushka Professorovska! Just imagine! I have never once seen that magnificent snowy land which so unforgettably lives in my memory..."
"And where are you en route to now, Mr. Gorchev?"
"I'm travelling for political purposes, disguised as a sailor."
If we have observed our h