the wood. Two of the officers slipped away to make an investigation.
For a long time they did not return and we, fearful lest something had
happened, moved off carefully in the direction of the smoke, all ready
for a fight if necessary. We finally came near enough to hear the voices
of many people and among them the loud laugh of one of our scouts.
In the middle of a meadow we made out a large tent with two tepees of
branches and around these a crowd of fifty or sixty men. When we broke
out of the forest all of them rushed forward with a joyful welcome
for us. It appeared that it was a large camp of Russian officers and
soldiers who, after their escape from Siberia, had lived in the houses
of the Russian colonists and rich peasants in Urianhai.

"What are you doing here?" we asked with surprise.

"Oh, ho, you know nothing at all about what has been going on?" replied
a fairly old man who called himself Colonel Ostrovsky. "In Urianhai an
order has been issued from the Military Commissioner to mobilize all
men over twenty-eight years of age and everywhere toward the town of
Belotzarsk are moving detachments of these Partisans. They are robbing
the colonists and peasants and killing everyone that falls into their
hands. We are hiding here from them."

The whole camp counted only sixteen rifles and three bombs, belonging
to a Tartar who was traveling with his Kalmuck guide to his herds in
Western Mongolia. We explained the aim of our journey and our intention
to pass through Mongolia to the nearest port on the Pacific.
The officers asked me to bring them out with us. I agreed. Our
reconnaissance proved to us that there were no Partisans near the house
of the peasant who was to ferry us over the Little Yenisei. We moved off
at once in order to pass as quickly as possible this dangerous zone of