orrow to arrange this matter with the Soyots. The officer was a
coarse brute and a silly man, desiring strongly to be promoted for the
capture of the Cossack officers, and feared that the Soyot could prevent
him from reaching the Seybi.

At daybreak we started together with the Red detachment. When we had
made about fifteen kilometers, we discovered behind the bushes two
riders. They were Soyots. On their backs were their flint rifles.

"Wait for me!" I said to the officer. "I shall go for a parley with
them."

I went forward with all the speed of my horse. One of the horsemen was
the Soyot Governor, who said to me:

"Remain behind the detachment and help us."

"All right," I answered, "but let us talk a little, in order that they
may think we are parleying."

After a moment I shook the hand of the Soyot and returned to the
soldiers.

"All right," I exclaimed, "we can continue our journey. No hindrance
will come from the Soyots."

We moved forward and, when we were crossing a large meadow, we espied at
a long distance two Soyots riding at full gallop right up the side of a
mountain. Step by step I accomplished the necessary manoeuvre to bring
me and my fellow traveler somewhat behind the detachment. Behind
our backs remained only one soldier, very brutish in appearance and
apparently very hostile to us. I had time to whisper to my companion
only one word: "Mauser," and saw that he very carefully unbuttoned the
saddle bag and drew out a little the handle of his pistol.

Soon I understood why these soldiers, excellent woodsmen as they were,
would not attempt to go to the Seybi without a guide. All the country
between the Algiak and the Seybi is formed by high and narrow mountain
ridges separated by deep swampy valleys. It is a cursed and dangerous
place. At first our horses mired to the knees, lunging about and
catching their feet in the roots of bushes in the quagmires, then
falling and pinning us under their sides, breaking parts of their
saddles and bridles. Then we would go in up to the riders' knees. My
horse went down once with his whole breast and head under the red fluid
mud and we just saved it and no more. Afterwards the officer's horse
fell with him so that he bruised his head on a stone. My companion
injured one knee against a tree. Some of the men also fell and were
injured. The horses breathed heavily. Somewhere dimly and gloomily
a crow cawed. Later the road became worse still. The trail followed