OOKED NOSE 152
XII IN THE PRISON OF ST. BASIL 163
XIII CHERRY BIM MAKES A STATEMENT 176
XIV IN THE HOLY VILLAGE 191
XV THE RED BRIDE 198
XVI THE BOOK OF ALL-POWER 210
XVII ON THE ROAD 221
XVIII THE MONASTERY OF ST. BASIL THE LEPER 233
XIX THE END OF BOOLBA 244
CHAPTER THE LAST 253

THE BOOK OF ALL-POWER

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCING MALCOLM HAY

If a man is not eager for adventure at the age of twenty-two, the
enticement of romantic possibilities will never come to him.

The chairman of the Ukraine Oil Company looked with a little amusement
at the young man who sat on the edge of a chair by the chairman's desk,
and noted how the eye of the youth had kindled at every fresh
discouragement which the chairman had put forward. Enthusiasm, reflected
the elder man, was one of the qualities which were most desirable in the
man who was to accept the position which Malcolm Hay was at that moment
considering.

"Russia is a strange country," said Mr. Tremayne. "It is one of the
mystery places of the world. You hear fellows coming back from China who
tell you amazing stories of the idiosyncrasies of the Chink. But I can
tell you, from my own personal observations, that the Chinaman is an
open book in words of one syllable compared with the average Russian
peasant. By the way, you speak Russian, I understand?"

Hay nodded.

"Oh, yes, sir," he said, "I have been talking Russian ever since I was
sixteen, and I speak both the dialects."

"Good!" nodded Mr. Tremayne. "Now, all that remains for you to do is to
think both dialects. I was in Southern Russia attending to our wells for
twenty years. In fact, long before our wells came into being, and I can
honestly say that, though I am not by any means an unintelligent man, I
know just as little about the Russian to-day as I did when I went there.
He's the most elusive creature. You think you know him two days after
you have met him. Two days later you find that you have changed all your
opinions about him; and by the end of the first year, if you have kept a
careful note of your observations and impressions in a diary, you will
discover that you have three hundred and sixty-five different
views--unless it happens to be a leap year."

"What happens in a leap year?"