"As soon as possible," Chernov answered.
"Soon as possible!" they mocked him. "No, no! We want it now, now. All the land for the peasant now! What have you been doing all these weeks anyhow?"
"I am not answerable to you for my deeds," Chernov replied, white with rage. "It is not you that put me in my office. It was the Peasants' Soviet. To them alone I make my reckoning."
At this rebuff a howl of derision went up from the sailors. With it went the cry: "Arrest Chernov! Arrest him! " A dozen hands stretched out to clutch the Minister and drag him off. Others sought to drag him back. In a vortex of fighting friends and foes, his clothes torn, the Minister was being borne away. But Trotzky, coming up, secured his release.
Meanwhile, Saakian scrambled up on the cab. He struck an attitude of stern command.
"Listen!" he cried. "Do you know who is now addressing you?"
"No," a voice called out. "And we don't give a damn."
"The man who is now addressing you," resumed Saakian, "is the Vice-President of the Central Executive Committee of the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Soldiers' and Workmen's Deputies."
This prodigious title instead of serving to impress and quiet the crowd, was greeted by laughter and cries of "Down with him!" (doloi, doloi). But he
