Portartur. 1940 - Boris Trofimov

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of courtship. Without taking away her hands, she replied:

      What do you? I’m just learning.

      – Beg. The music is comforting, and I miss my family so much. I have a small, eyed daughter…

      – Aaaa, – Valya gently stretched out and squeezed a hand to the captain. – We will choose together what to play.

      The girl took a tray with sweets from the battlefield – he was waiting for her at the portiere – and went around all the guests.

      The captain stood by the window.

      “I would like to listen to Tchaikovsky,” he said when Valya approached him.

      – I’ll play, Nikolay Stepanovich, but later. We do not know the guests… What do you say against the “Storm on the Volga?”

      Nikolai Stepanovich nodded approvingly and thought: “What a clever girl, exactly like my Natasha.”

      The musical play was listened to in complete silence, and when Valya finished, Lykov approached the piano.

      – Divinely! Russian motives, our Volga…

      How is your health, Valentina Modestovna?

      The captain winced and stepped aside.

      Valya looked at Lykov and smiled.

      “Firewood and T-beams have been well studied, but I have not mastered the approach to people,” she thought.

      “Play something else,” the lieutenant shouted. – Strauss waltz. While Valya was playing, more guests came up: the director of the bank and a trusted local large trading company Churin and Co. with their wives. Modest Vladimirovich announced that the dancing would begin now, and he sat down at the piano. The evening was lively. Valya danced with Lykov, the lieutenant and the captain, but talked exclusively with Nikolai Stepanovich. She asked him about his family, about his service, about the province.

      “I do not know much about China, and even less about the Japanese… I turn red with shame…”

      At the end of the dinner, men more and more began to be put to the glass. Lykov reddened and revived. The lieutenant purred the tune from the Merry Widow. The captain drank brandy, but with restraint. He stopped the lieutenant, who was headed to the living room.

      – Let’s drink… I dug up the Martel cognac of the highest brand… A curious thing with a lemon… Let the girls play. From here it’s even better to listen.

      Valya played a potpourri from Russian songs.

      – Here it is, holy Russia! – exclaimed Lykov. – Let’s drink to the great Russian people, gentlemen! What are you pouring in there, captain? For the Russian people – and brandy? No, you need a glass of little white!

      “Agreed,” said the captain. – Russian vodka is so Russian vodka…

      They all drank and began to eat, and the captain stood with an outstretched hand.

      – Well, you, Nikolai Stepanovich? – asked the lieutenant. Everyone turned toward the captain.

      – And I will drink. But let me, dear Lykov, tell you, as a Russian man and a merchant, a few words … – The captain with an outstretched hand in which he held the glass, approached Lykov:

      – Chase away the Japanese girl who lives with you.

      – Allow me. This is my private affair.

      – Not! This is a purely public matter! – cried out Nikolay Stepanovich. “In your house, not a beautiful Madame for your pleasure, but a Japanese agent.”

      Lykov blushed deeply.

      – It can not be! She accepted the Russian faith.

      – I know. In Japan, Russian money contains a factory of Japanese spies. She is nicknamed the Russian Orthodox mission.

      The lieutenant tried to pull out the captain.

      – You forget, Lieutenant! I understand what I’m saying. With knowledge of the Russian language and with a prayer, it is much better to fool… No, this is a disgrace! The captain cried out again, responding to the puzzled looks of the guests. “We pay spies for our money, we warm them in our breasts… Laundresses, hairdressers, battles, tailors… All this horde of hundreds of eyes looks at what we are doing here and how many of us are on Kvantun. Try to hide from them and keep state secrets. All of them – rope loop, in which we stand with both feet. The time will come, they will pull at its end, and we will clatter… We will clash at full length.

      Lykov lowered his head. Most of the guests thought, and the supplier of the forest said:

      – It is necessary to pour on a glass and wash the eyes… The coppers and kept women were frightened. Eka, think, passion!

      – You are a scoundrel! – screamed the captain. “Come out to the courtyard, I’ll rip you by the ears.” And here, you know, with ladies uncomfortable.

      – What? What? – blinked eyes supplier of the forest.

      “Let’s go for some fresh air,” said the bank director, frightened, and led the fat man to the porch.

      – I’m sorry, gentlemen. But please carefully think about my words. Not today, then tomorrow is war, and we are hung up with helpful Japanese… Oh my God, when will everyone understand this danger!

      The voice of the captain trembled. He wiped his glasses and made a general bow, he left.

      – What an impossible person! – exclaimed the guests.

      “You do not know Nikolai Stepanovich Rezanov,” said the colonel. – There is a lot of truth in his words. Japan is growing. Authoritative military experts do not deny serious danger. My colleague, engineer Colonel Velichko, who was sent here to draft the fortress, wrote in his report for 1899: “The more the port of Dalniy develops commercially and is more widely supplied with all port facilities – docks, marinas, coal, etc. he will be more suitable for the services of the enemy… And if the enemy seizes the port of Dalniy and will have to meet his concentration in Arthur, then the railway connecting the Dalniy with Port Arthur will bring him great benefit and allow him to concentrate under the fortress Yew significant siege means. “Undoubtedly, a trade port should have been built in Pigeon Bay and its adjacent gulfs. There was a project – to connect the channel of the western basin of Arthur with the Pigeon Bay. Then, of course, it would turn out very stable.

      The noise in the dining room made Valya alert. She sat at the piano and waited for the captain, whom she promised to play one of his favorite pieces of music.

      A lieutenant came swaying.

      “I never expected it,” he laughed. – Lykov has a Japanese spy lives on. – The lieutenant, having learned about Lykov’s courting for Vale, was offended. – Merchant licentiousness! Naughty! Lykovschina!..

      Valya got up and, turning, looked sternly at the lieutenant.

      – Where is Nikolai Stepanovich? Gone home? And you, Igor Sergeyevich, know Lykov well? I am not inclined to praise him, and yet, I beg you, do not lose respect for yourself…

      The lieutenant instantly otrezvetel and clutching his head, ran out of the living room.

      – What tactlessness! Tikhon would not do that, “whispered Valya.

      2

      As

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