Why, on the corner of the
Sadovaya to-day, I saw a Red Guard try to stop a boy selling
_Soldatski Golos_.... The boy just laughed at him, and a crowd of
people wanted to lynch the bandit. It's only a few hours more, now.
Even if Kerensky wouldn't come they haven't the men to run a
Government. Absurd! I understand they're even fighting among
themselves at Smolny!"
A Socialist Revolutionary friend of mine drew me aside. "I know
where the Committee for Salvation is hiding," he said. "Do you want
to go and talk with them?"
By this time it was dusk. The city had again settled down to
normal-shop-shutters up, lights shining, and on the streets great
crowds of people slowly moving up and down and arguing....
At Number 86 Nevsky we went through a passage into a courtyard,
surrounded by tall apartment buildings. At the door of apartment 229
my friend knocked in a peculiar way. There was a sound of scuffling;
an inside door slammed; then the front door opened a crack and a
woman's face appeared. After a minute's observation she led us in-a
placid-looking, middle-aged lady who at once cried, "Kyril, it's all
right!" In the dining-room, where a samovar steamed on the table and
there were plates full of bread and raw fish, a man in uniform
emerged from behind the window-curtains, and another, dressed like a
workman, from a closet. They were delighted to meet an American
reporter.
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