sk was getting ready to
install the sledge convoy system which was our only means of
transportation during the long winter months. Shegovari being a large
and prosperous community and there being a plentiful supply of horses
there, we were accordingly dispatched to this place to take over the
town and buy up as many horses as could be commandeered in this section.
In company with a villainous looking detachment of Cossacks we set out
from Shenkursk on board an enormous barge being towed by the river
steamer "Tolstoy." On our way we became pretty well acquainted with
Colonel Aristov, the commander of the Cossacks, who, through his
interpreter, filled our ears with the various deeds of valor of himself
and picked cohorts. He further informed us that the village where we
were going was hostile to the Allied troops, and that there was some
question just at that time as to whether it was not in fact occupied by
the enemy. Consequently he had devised a very clever scheme, so he
thought, for getting what we were after and incidentally putting horses
on the market at bargain rates.

We were to bivouac for the night some ten miles or so above the town and
at early dawn we would steam down the river on our gunboat. If there
were any signs of hostility we were at once to open up on the village
with the pom pom mounted on board our cruiser, and the infantry were to
follow up with an attack on land. The colonel's idea was that a little
demonstration of arms would thoroughly cow the native villagers and
therefore they would be willing to meet any terms offered by him for the
purchase of their horses. Fortunately or unfortunately (which side one
considers) the plan failed to materialize, for when we anchored
alongside the village the peasants were busily occupied in getting their
supply of salt fish for the winter and merely took our arrival as one of
the usual unfortunate visitations of Providence. The colonel at once
sent for the starosta (the village elder as heretofore explained) who
immediately presented himself with much bowing and scraping, probably
wondering what further ill-luck was to befall him. The colonel with a
great display of pomp and gesticulating firmly impressed the starosta
that on the following day all the peasants were to bring to this village
their horses, prepared to sell them for the good of the cause. ... The
following morning the streets were lined up with horses and owners, and
they could be seen corning fr