ld-mine they had left, marked by the curling smoke which rose from
fires kept constantly alive to drive away the mosquitoes, the pests of
the region. Taking a last look at their place of exile, they moved on
into a grassy valley, where they breakfasted and fed their horses. On
they went, keeping a sharp watch upon their guides, day by day, until
the evening of the fourth day found them past the crest of the range and
descending into a narrow valley, where they decided to spend the night.

Thus far all had gone well. They were now beyond the Russian frontier
and in Chinese territory, and as their guides knew the country no
farther, they were set free and their rifles restored to them. Venison
had been obtained plentifully on the march, and fugitives and captives
alike passed the evening in feasting and enjoyment. With daybreak the
Siberians left to return to the mine and the Circassians resumed their
route.

From this time onward difficulties confronted them. They were in a
region of mountains, precipices, ravines, and torrents. One dangerous
river they swam, but, instead of keeping on due south, the difficulties
of the way induced them to change their course to the west, alarmed,
probably, by the vast snowy peaks of the Tangnou Mountains in the
distance, though if they had passed these all danger from Siberia would
have been at an end. As it was, after more than three weeks of
wandering, the nature of the country forced them towards the northwest,
until they came upon the eastern shore of the Altin-Kool Lake.

Here was their final chance. Had they followed the lake southerly they
might still have reached a place of safety. But ill fortune brought them
upon it at a point where it seemed easiest to round it on the north,
and they passed on, hoping soon to reach its western shores. But the
Bea, the impassable torrent that flows from the lake, forced them again
many miles northward in search of a ford, and into a locality from which
their chance of escape was greatly reduced.

More than two months had passed since they left the mines, and the poor
wanderers were still in the vast Siberian prison, from which, if they
had known the country, they might now have been far away. The region
they had reached was thinly inhabited by Kalmuck Tartars, and they
finally entered a village of this people, with whose inhabitants they
unluckily got into a broil, ending in a battle, in which several
Kalmucks were killed and the village bu