The Treacherous Emerald Stone

On the eve of 1797, an officer of the Field Courier Regiment of Her Imperial Majesty Catherine the Second—second lieutenant Alexander Egorov—by the foul play of fate became a deserter. He fled to America, where, again by the foul play of fate, he somehow managed to wait out the Russian-Persian war and the war with Napoleon. And the “foul play” was an enormous emerald stone, which, by the favor of the mighty of the world, was moved across countries and continents. The Russian officer Alexander Egorov felt a great guilt for the involuntary desertion committed for the sake of that green-colored stone, and he vowed to atone for his guilt before the Motherland. And he did atone! A true Russian officer!