o column and
heard with mingled respect and amusement the weird marching song of the
Russian soldier. And one day six hundred of those recruits, in obedience
to order from Archangel, went off by sleigh to Kholmogora to be
outfitted and assigned to units of the new army of the Archangel
Republic. Among these recruits was a young man, heir-apparent to the
million roubles of the old merchant prince of Pinega, whose mansion was
occupied by the Americans for command headquarters and billets for all
the American officers engaged in the defense of the city. This young man
had tried in the old Russian way to evade the local government
official's draft. He had tried again at Capt. Akutin's headquarters to
be exempted but that democratic officer, who understood the real meaning
of the revolution to the Russian people and who had their confidence,
would not forfeit it by favoring the rich man's son. And when he came to
American headquarters to argue that he was needed more in the officers'
training camp at Archangel than in the ranks of recruits, he was told
that revolutionary Russia would surely recognize his merit and give him
a chance if he displayed marked ability along military lines, and wished
good luck. He drilled in the ranks. And Pinega saw it.

The Americans had finished their mission in Pinega. In place of the
three hundred dispirited White Guards was a well trained regiment of
local Russian troops which, together with recruits, numbered over two
thousand. Under the instruction of Lieut. Wright of "M" Company, who had
been trained as an American machine gun officer, the at first
half-hearted Russians had developed an eight-gun machine gun unit of
fine spirit, which later distinguished itself in action, standing
between the city and the Bolsheviks in March when the Americans had left
to fight on another front. Also under the instruction of a veteran
Russian artillery officer the two field-pieces, Russian 75's, had been
manned largely by peasant volunteers who had served in the old Russian
artillery units. In addition, a scouting unit had been developed by a
former soldier who had been a regimental scout under the old Russian
Government. Pinega was quiet and able to defend itself.

Compared with the winter story of wonderful stamina in enduring
hardships at Shenkursk and Kodish and the sanguine fighting of those
fronts, this defense of Pinega looks tame. Between the lines of the
story must be read the things that made t