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Then at nightfall, when a layer of mineral oil is thus spread over the Caspian, they light it, and exhibit the matchless spectacle of an ocean of fire undulating and breaking into waves under the breeze. But what is only a sign of rejoicing at Bakou, might prove a fearful disaster on the waters of the Angara.
Thaddeus continued: "It is necessary to explain that at Bakou my little house is one of the first before you reach the quay. I had some Armenian employees there. When arrived, what do you suppose I saw? A file of soldiers with cannon, yes, with a cannon, on my word, turned against my house and an officer saying quietly, 'there it is.
At the port of Bakou, on the Persian frontier, on the Caspian Sea, in Asia Minor, in China, on the Yuen-Kiang, in the Burman Empire, springs of mineral oil rise in thousands to the surface of the ground. It is an "oil country," similar to the one which bears this name in North America.
"Oh, yes, a little of everything for a livelihood. I have a little well down Bakou way, nothing big; and a little house, a very small one for my small business." "What a monopolist Thaddeus is," declared Athanase Georgevitch, hitting him a formidable slap on the thigh with his enormous hand. "Gounsovski has come himself to keep an eye on Annouchka's debut, eh?
"He passes at court, though, for an unreliable. He once made a long visit to Tolstoi." "Bah! Gounsovski must have rendered some signal service to that imprudent prince," concluded Athanase. "But for yourself, Thaddeus, you haven't said what you did with Gounsovski at Bakou." * as told in "The Lady In Black."
"I was returning from Balakani in a drojki," said Thaddeus Tchitchnikoff, "and I was drawing near Bakou after having seen the debris of my oil shafts that had been burned by the Tartars, when I met Gounsovski in the road, who, with two of his friends, found themselves badly off with one of the wheels of their carriage broken. I stopped.
The czar then seized Derbent, besieged Bakou, and finally made a treaty with one of the parties whose dissensions at that time filled with discord the empire of the Soofees: he procured the cession of Astrabad, the key of the Caspian Sea and, in some measure, of the whole Persian empire.
During certain religious festivals, principally at the port of Bakou, the natives, who are fire-worshipers, throw liquid naphtha on the surface of the sea, which buoys it up, its density being inferior to that of water.
While Thaddeus and the officers told each other stories of Bakou or paid compliments to the women, Gounsovski, who was through with raillery, leaned toward Rouletabille and gave that young man fatherly counsel with great unction.
"Who dragged you into the Onoto's dressing-room then? demanded Athanase. "Oh, Gounsovski himself, my dear. He is very amateurish, you know." "What! do you knock around with Gounsovski?" "On my word, I tell you, dear friends, he isn't a bad acquaintance. He did me a little service at Bakou last year. A good acquaintance in these times of public trouble." "You are in the oil business now, are you?"
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