gol to the ground; then I rushed through the line
of lamas surrounding Yvette, and we backed up against the cart.

I had an automatic pistol in my pocket, but it would have been
suicide to shoot except as a last resort. When a Mongol "starts
anything" he is sure to finish it; he is not like a Chinese, who
will usually run at the first shot. We stood for at least three
minutes with that wall of scowling brutes ten feet away. They were
undecided what to do and were only waiting for a leader to close in.
One huge beast over six feet tall was just in front of me, and as I
stood with my fingers crooked about the trigger of the automatic in
my pocket, I thought, "If you start, I'm going to nail you anyway."

Just at this moment of indecision our Mongol leaped on my wife's
pony, shouted that he was going to Duke Loobitsan Yangsen, an
influential friend of ours, and dashed away. Instantly attention
turned from us to him. Fifty men were on horseback in a second,
flying after him at full speed. I climbed into the cart, shouting to
Yvette to jump on Kublai Khan and run; but she would not leave me.
At full speed we dashed down the hill, the plunging horses
scattering lamas right and left. Our young Mongol had saved us from
a situation which momentarily might have become critical.

At the entrance to the main street of Urga below the Lama City I saw
the black Mongol who had started all the trouble. I jumped to the
ground, seized him by the collar and one leg, and attempted to throw
him into the cart for I had a little matter to settle with him which
could best be done to my satisfaction where we were without
spectators.

At the same instant a burly policeman, wearing a saber fully five
feet long, seized my horse by the bridle. At the black Mongol's
instigation (who, I discovered, was himself a policeman) he had been
waiting to arrest us when we came into the city. Since it was
impossible to learn what had caused the trouble, Yvette rode to
Andersen, Meyer's compound to bring back Mr. Olufsen and his
interpreter. She found the whole courtyard swarming with excited
Mongol soldiers. A few moments later Olufsen arrived, and we were
allowed to return to his house on parole. Then he visited the
Foreign Minister, who telephoned the police that we were not to be
molested further.

We could never satisfactorily determine what it was all about for
every one had a different story. The most plausible explanation was
as follows. Russians