make this same climb to freedom which we had just
accomplished. Perhaps they lacked the persistence or the presence of
mind, perhaps they had not the poetic ability to sing odes about "roads,
bridges and gold mines" or perhaps they simply had no spare trousers.

CHAPTER IX

TO THE SAYANS AND SAFETY

Dense virgin wood surrounded us. In the high, already yellow grass the
trail wound hardly noticeable in among bushes and trees just beginning
to drop their many colored leaves. It is the old, already forgotten Amyl
pass road. Twenty-five years ago it carried the provisions, machinery
and workers for the numerous, now abandoned, gold mines of the
Amyl valley. The road now wound along the wide and rapid Amyl, then
penetrated into the deep forest, guiding us round the swampy ground
filled with those dangerous Siberian quagmires, through the dense
bushes, across mountains and wide meadows. Our guide probably did not
surmise our real intention and sometimes, apprehensively looking down at
the ground, would say:

"Three riders on horses with shoes on have passed here. Perhaps they
were soldiers."

His anxiety was terminated when he discovered that the tracks led off to
one side and then returned to the trail.

"They did not proceed farther," he remarked, slyly smiling.

"That's too bad," we answered. "It would have been more lively to travel
in company."

But the peasant only stroked his beard and laughed. Evidently he was not
taken in by our statement.

We passed on the way a gold mine that had been formerly planned and
equipped on splendid lines but was now abandoned and the buildings all
destroyed. The Bolsheviki had taken away the machinery, supplies and
also some parts of the buildings. Nearby stood a dark and gloomy church
with windows broken, the crucifix torn off and the tower burned, a
pitifully typical emblem of the Russia of today. The starving family of
the watchman lived at the mine in continuing danger and privation. They
told us that in this forest region were wandering about a band of Reds
who were robbing anything that remained on the property of the gold
mine, were working the pay dirt in the richest part of the mine and,
with a little gold washed, were going to drink and gamble it away in
some distant villages where the peasants were making the forbidden vodka
out of berries and potatoes and selling it for its weight in gold. A
meeting with this band meant death. After three days we crossed the
n