dismissed his Mongols and left for
Kobdo, while Domojiroff with his band started for Jassaktu Khan to
arrange for the mobilization of the Mongols there. With the consent of
Chultun Beyli he wrote to Wang Tsao-tsun a demand to disarm his guard,
as all of the Chinese troops in Urga had been so treated; but this
letter arrived after Wang had bought camels to replace the stolen horses
and was on his way to the border. Later Lt.-Colonel Michailoff sent
a detachment of fifty men under the command of Lieutenant Strigine to
overhaul Wang and receive their arms.

CHAPTER XXVII

MYSTERY IN A SMALL TEMPLE

Prince Chultun Beyli and I were ready to leave the Narabanchi Kure.
While the Hutuktu was holding service for the Sait in the Temple of
Blessing, I wandered around through the narrow alleyways between the
walls of the houses of the various grades of Lama Gelongs, Getuls,
Chaidje and Rabdjampa; of schools where the learned doctors of theology
or Maramba taught together with the doctors of medicine or Ta Lama;
of the residences for students called Bandi; of stores, archives and
libraries. When I returned to the yurta of the Hutuktu, he was inside.
He presented me with a large hatyk and proposed a walk around the
monastery. His face wore a preoccupied expression from which I gathered
that he had something he wished to discuss with me. As we went out of
the yurta, the liberated President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce
and a Russian officer joined us. The Hutuktu led us to a small building
just back of a bright yellow stone wall.

"In that building once stopped the Dalai Lama and Bogdo Khan and we
always paint the buildings yellow where these holy persons have lived.
Enter!"

The interior of the building was arranged with splendor. On the ground
floor was the dining-room, furnished with richly carved, heavy blackwood
Chinese tables and cabinets filled with porcelains and bronze. Above
were two rooms, the first a bed-room hung with heavy yellow silk
curtains; a large Chinese lantern richly set with colored stones hung
by a thin bronze chain from the carved wooden ceiling beam. Here stood
a large square bed covered with silken pillows, mattresses and blankets.
The frame work of the bed was also of the Chinese blackwood and carried,
especially on the posts that held the roof-like canopy, finely executed
carvings with the chief motive the conventional dragon devouring the
sun. By the side stood a chest of drawers completel