lities. In the Lake
Baikal region of Siberia there were several thousand Magyars and
many Bolsheviki. It was known that Czechs expected to attack them,
and that they would certainly be driven across the borders into
Mongolia if defeated. In that event what would be the attitude of
the Mongolian government? Would it intern the belligerents, or allow
them to use the Urga district as a base of operations?

As a matter of fact, the question had been settled just before my
arrival. The Czechs had made the expected attack with about five
hundred men; all the Magyars, to the number of several thousand, had
surrendered, and the Bolsheviki had disappeared like mists before
the sun. The front of operations had moved in a single night almost
two thousand miles away to the Omsk district, and it was certain
that Mongolia would be left in peace. Mr. Price's work also was
done, for the telegraph from Urga to Irkutsk was again in operation
and thus communication was established with Peking.

The morning after my arrival Mr. Guptil and I rode out to see the
town. Never have I visited such a city of contrasts, or one to which
I was so eager to return. As we did come back, I shall tell, in a
future chapter, of what we found there.

CHAPTER III

A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS

This is a "hard luck" chapter. Stories of ill-fortune are not always
interesting, but I am writing this one to show what _can_ happen to
an automobile in the Gobi. We had gone to Urga without even a
puncture and I began to feel that motoring in Mongolia was as simple
as riding on Fifth Avenue--more so, in fact, for we did not have to
watch traffic policemen or worry about "right of way." There is no
crowding on the Gobi Desert. When we passed a camel caravan or a
train of oxcarts we were sure to have plenty of room, for the
landscape was usually spotted in every direction with fleeing
animals.

Our motors had "purred" so steadily that accidents and repair shops
seemed very far away and not of much importance. On the return trip,
however, the reverse of the picture was presented and I learned that
to be alone in the desert when something is wrong with the digestion
of your automobile can have its serious aspects. Unless you are an
expert mechanic and have an assortment of "spare parts," you may
have to walk thirty or forty miles to the nearest water and spend
many days of waiting until help arrives.

Fortunately for us, there are few things which either Coltman