ch.il]            SINISTER FOREBODINGS               23
The Admiral was on the point of consenting.
"Yes, yes, of course—~—"
Then he suddenly seemed to remember something, and added in a weary tone :
"After all, no. It is all the same." With that he turned away and left the cabin without taking leave of me.
As soon as I was on shore again I went to the Viceroy's Tiouse—or, as it is called, "Palace." There I wrote my name in the visitors' book and went home—that is, to the •comrade who had invited me. Strictly speaking, I ought to have reported myself to the Admiral second-in-command, but decided to put this off to the next day. "Was it not all the same ? " My heart was heavy, and I felt the need of being alone.
My host had not yet returned from his work. I took off my uniform, sat down at the window, and looked about. Just in front of me rose up the massive "Golden Hill." It was crowned by the ramparts of our batteries, and over these flew the proud flag of Russia. " Where the Russian flag is once hoisted, it will never be struck," Nicholas I. said when the occupation of the lands of the Ussuri was reported to him. Until yesterday, yes, until this morning, I had believed this. And now, now I dared not answer myself. Or still worse—a voice within me gave an answer, which I simply would not believe. To the left, in the east corner of the basin, lay the Novik in dry dock. Behind the grey roofs of the workshops and sheds rose a whole forest of slender masts, which belonged to the ¦destroyers, tied up there alongside one another. Through the light haze illumined by the sun appeared the high sides of the Petropavlovsk and Sebastopol. Further to the right, in the passage to the outer roads, over the roofs of the torpedo workshops, the masts and funnels of the Retvisan, which had grounded there, were visible. Still more to the right, behind the batteries, buildings, and the slip on the Tiger's Tail Peninsula, stood out the silhouettes of the remaining ships of the squadron. They lay there, •closely packed together in the small portion of the western basin, where the dredging had just been completed. The sky was still cloudless, the sun as bright as in the morning ;