and yaks and approaching Soyots confirmed our supposition. Here behind
the Tannu Ola the Soyots had not seen the Red soldiers. We presented to
these Soyots a brick of tea and saw them depart happy and sure that we
were "Tzagan," a "good people."

While our horses rested and grazed on the well-preserved grass, we sat
by the fire and deliberated upon our further progress. There developed
a sharp controversy between two sections of our company, one led by a
Colonel who with four officers were so impressed by the absence of Reds
south of the Tannu Ola that they determined to work westward to Kobdo
and then on to the camp on the Emil River where the Chinese authorities
had interned six thousand of the forces of General Bakitch, which had
come over into Mongolian territory. My friend and I with sixteen of the
officers chose to carry through our old plan to strike for the shores
of Lake Kosogol and thence out to the Far East. As neither side could
persuade the other to abandon its ideas, our company was divided and the
next day at noon we took leave of one another. It turned out that our
own wing of eighteen had many fights and difficulties on the way, which
cost us the lives of six of our comrades, but that the remainder of us
came through to the goal of our journey so closely knit by the ties of
devotion which fighting and struggling for our very lives entailed
that we have ever preserved for one another the warmest feelings of
friendship. The other group under Colonel Jukoff perished. He met a big
detachment of Red cavalry and was defeated by them in two fights. Only
two officers escaped. They related to me this sad news and the details
of the fights when we met four months later in Urga.

Our band of eighteen riders with five packhorses moved up the valley
of the Buret Hei. We floundered in the swamps, passed innumerable miry
streams, were frozen by the cold winds and were soaked through by the