ness of a good Mongol equipage! All my bones
began to ache. Finally I groaned at every lunge and at last I suffered
a very sharp attack of ischias or sciatica in my wounded leg. At night
I could neither sleep, lie down nor sit with comfort and spent the whole
night pacing up and down the plain, listening to the loud snoring of
the inhabitants of the yurta. At times I had to fight the two huge black
dogs which attacked me. The following day I could endure the wracking
only until noon and was then forced to give up and lie down. The pain
was unbearable. I could not move my leg nor my back and finally fell
into a high fever. We were forced to stop and rest. I swallowed all
my stock of aspirin and quinine but without relief. Before me was a
sleepless night about which I could not think without weakening fear. We
had stopped in the yurta for guests by the side of a small monastery. My
Mongols invited the Lama doctor to visit me, who gave me two very bitter
powders and assured me I should be able to continue in the morning. I
soon felt a stimulated palpitation of the heart, after which the pain
became even sharper. Again I spent the night without any sleep but when
the sun arose the pain ceased instantly and, after an hour, I ordered
them to saddle me a horse, as I was afraid to continue further in the
cart.

While the Mongols were catching the horses, there came to my tent
Colonel N. N. Philipoff, who told me that he denied all the accusations
that he and his brother and Poletika were Bolsheviki and that Bezrodnoff
allowed him to go to Van Kure to meet Baron Ungern, who was expected
there. Only Philipoff did not know that his Mongol guide was armed with
a bomb and that another Mongol had been sent on ahead with a letter to
Baron Ungern. He did not know that Poletika and his brothers were shot
at the same time in Zain Shabi. Philipoff was in a hurry and wanted to
reach Van Kure that day. I left an hour after him.

CHAPTER XXXII

AN OLD FORTUNE TELLER

From this point we began traveling along the ourton road. In this region
the Mongols had very poor and exhausted horses, because they were forced
continuously to supply mounts to the numerous envoys of Daichin Van and
of Colonel Kazagrandi. We were compelled to spend the night at the last
ourton before Van Kure, where a stout old Mongol and his son kept the
station. After our supper he took the shoulder-blade of the sheep, which
had been carefully scraped clean of all th