"
"Oh, I don't care anything about comfort," protested Lermontoff. "What
I want is some scientific apparatus. I am a student of science. I have
nothing to do with politics, and have never been implicated in any
plot. Someone in authority has made a stupid mistake, and so I am
here. This mistake I am quite certain will be discovered and remedied.
I hold no malice, and will say nothing of the place, once I am free.
It is no business of mine. But I do not wish to have the intervening
time wasted. I should like to buy some electrical machinery, and
materials, for which I am willing to pay any price that is asked."
"Do you understand electricity?" questioned the Governor, and for the
first time his impassive face showed a glimmer of interest.
"Do I understand electricity? Why, for over a year I have been chief
electrician on a war-ship."
"Perhaps then," said the Governor, relapsing into Russian again, "you
can tell me what is wrong with our dynamo here in the Rock. After
repeated requisition they sent machinery for lighting our offices and
passages with electricity. They apparently did not care to send an
electrician to the Trogzmondoff, but forwarded instead some books of
instruction. I have been working at it for two years and a half, but I
am still using oil lamps and candles. We wired the place without
difficulty." He held up the candle, and showed, depending from the
ceiling, a chandelier of electric lamps which Lermontoff had not
hitherto noticed, various brackets, and one or two stand lamps in a
corner, with green silk-covered wire attached.
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