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The captain thought if the boys were to pass through so wild a country that they should have something in the nature of a passport which they could show, and suggested that the chief of police should give them one. As a result, probably accelerated by a fee of five rubles offered at the captain’s suggestion, a paper was made out which stated that Sidney Porter and his brother Raymond were returning to their home in the United States on account of the war in which Russia was engaged, and that all officials of Russian towns through which they passed should help them on their way in obedience to an order received from Petrograd. Signed by the “Chief of Police of Petrovsk, Province of Daghestan.”

The sailor read this paper to the boys so they would know exactly what they were offering as a passport. When he came to the end Raymond exclaimed,—

“Where in the world is Petrograd? I never heard of that place before.”

The man could not inform him, for he had never heard of the place either; but when he asked the captain, it was explained that the Czar had just changed the name of St. Petersburg to Petrograd, on account of the German origin of the former name.