The Foreign Policy of Company 99 167
that Demetre grinned anyhow, conceiving it to be a new form of punishment.
"The heathen rides like a Cossack," re- marked a fireman who had seen a Wild West show "they're the greatest riders in the world/'
The word seemed to electrify Svangvsk. He grinned wider than ever.
"Yas yas me Cossack," he spluttered, striking his cheat.
"Cossack!" repeated John Byrnes, thought- fully, "ain't that a kind of a Russian?"
^"They're one of the Russian tribes, sure," said the desk man, who read books between fire alarms.
Just then Alderman Foley, who was on his way home and did not know of the runaway, stopped at the door of the engine-house and called to Byrnes:
"Hello, there, Jimmy, me boy how's the war coming along? Japs still got the bear on the trot, have they?"
"Oh, I don't know," said John ^Byrnes, argumentatively, "them Japs haven't got any walkover. You wait till Kuropatkin gets a good whack at 'em and they won't be knee-high to a puddle-ducks ky."
�� �
