ly horses behind
him, I dropped my gun and knew all was well. The Reds let off a volley
at the trio but they made good their escape behind the rocks and
disappeared. The firing continued more and more lively and I did not
know what to do. From our side we shot rarely, saving our cartridges.
Watching carefully the enemy, I noticed two black points on the snow
high above the Reds. They slowly approached our antagonists and finally
were hidden from view behind some sharp hillocks. When they emerged from
these, they were right on the edge of some overhanging rocks at the foot
of which the Reds lay concealed from us. By this time I had no doubt
that these were the heads of two men. Suddenly these men rose up and
I watched them flourish and throw something that was followed by two
deafening roars which re-echoed across the mountain valley. Immediately
a third explosion was followed by wild shouts and disorderly firing
among the Reds. Some of the horses rolled down the slope into the snow
below and the soldiers, chased by our shots, made off as fast as they
could down into the valley out of which we had come.

Afterward the Tartar told me the Soyot had proposed to guide them around
behind the Reds to fall upon their rear with the bombs. When I had bound
up the wounded shoulder of the officer and we had taken the pack off the
killed animal, we continued our journey. Our position was complicated.
We had no doubt that the Red detachment came up from Mongolia.
Therefore, were there Red troops in Mongolia? What was their strength?
Where might we meet them? Consequently, Mongolia was no more the
Promised Land? Very sad thoughts took possession of us.

But Nature pleased us. The wind gradually fell. The storm ceased. The
sun more and more frequently broke through the scudding clouds. We were
traveling upon a high, snow-covered plateau, where in one place the wind
blew it clean and in another piled it high with drifts which caught our
horses and held them so that they could hardly extricate themselves at
times. We had to dismount and wade through the white piles up to our
waists and often a man or horse was down and had to be helped to his
feet. At last the descent began and at sunset we stopped in the small
larch grove, spent the night at the fire among the trees and drank the
tea boiled in the water carried from the open mountain brook. In various
places we came across the tracks of our recent antagonists.

Everything, even Nature