Constant dangers develop one's watchfulness and keenness ofperception. We did not take off our clothes nor unsaddle ourhorses, tired as we were. I put my Mauser inside my coat and beganto look about and scrutinize the people. The first thing Idiscovered was the butt end of a rifle under the pile of pillowsalways found on the peasants' large beds. Later I noticed theemployees of our host constantly coming into the room for ordersfrom him. They did not look like simple peasants, although theyhad long beards and were dressed very dirtily. They examined mewith very attentive eyes and did not leave me and my friend alonewith the host. We could not, however, make out anything. But thenthe Soyot Governor came in and, noticing our strained relations,began explaining in the Soyot language to the host all about us.
"I beg your pardon," the colonist said, "but you know yourself thatnow for one honest man we have ten thousand murderers and robbers."With this we began chatting more freely. It appeared that our hostknew that a band of Bolsheviki would attack him in the search forthe band of Cossack officers who were living in his house on andoff. He had heard also about the "total loss" of one detachment.
However, it did not entirely calm the old man to have our news, forhe had heard of the large detachment of Reds that was coming fromthe border of the Usinsky District in pursuit of the Tartars whowere escaping with their cattle south to Mongolia.
"From one minute to another we are awaiting them with fear," saidour host to me. "My Soyot has come in and announced that the Redsare already crossing the Seybi and the Tartars are prepared for thefight."We immediately went out to look over our saddles and packs and thentook the horses and hid them in the bushes not far off. We madeready our rifles and pistols and took posts in the enclosure towait for our common enemy. An hour of trying impatience passed,when one of the workmen came running in from the wood andwhispered:
"They are crossing our swamp. . . . The fight is on."In fact, like an answer to his words, came through the woods thesound of a single rifle-shot, followed closely by the increasingrat-tat-tat of the mingled guns. Nearer to the house the soundsgradually came. Soon we heard the beating of the horses' hoofs andthe brutish cries of the soldiers. In a moment three of them burstinto the house, from off the road where they were being raked nowby the Tartars from both directions, cursing violently. One ofthem shot at our host. He stumbled along and fell on his knee, ashis hand reached out toward the rifle under his pillows.
"Who are YOU?" brutally blurted out one of the soldiers, turning tous and raising his rifle. We answered with Mausers andsuccessfully, for only one soldier in the rear by the door escaped,and that merely to fall into the hands of a workman in thecourtyard who strangled him. The fight had begun. The soldierscalled on their comrades for help. The Reds were strung along inthe ditch at the side of the road, three hundred paces from thehouse, returning the fire of the surrounding Tartars. Severalsoldiers ran to the house to help their comrades but this time weheard the regular volley of the workmen of our host. They fired asthough in a manoeuvre calmly and accurately. Five Red soldiers layon the road, while the rest now kept to their ditch. Before longwe discovered that they began crouching and crawling out toward theend of the ditch nearest the wood where they had left their horses.
The sounds of shots became more and more distant and soon we sawfifty or sixty Tartars pursuing the Reds across the meadow.
Two days we rested here on the Seybi. The workmen of our host,eight in number, turned out to be officers hiding from theBolsheviks. They asked permission to go on with us, to which weagreed.
When my friend and I continued our trip we had a guard of eightarmed officers and three horses with packs. We crossed a beautifulvalley between the Rivers Seybi and Ut. Everywhere we saw splendidgrazing lands with numerous herds upon them, but in two or threehouses along the road we did not find anyone living. All hadhidden away in fear after hearing the sounds of the fight with theReds. The following day we went up over the high chain ofmountains called Daban and, traversing a great area of burnedtimber where our trail lay among the fallen trees, we began todescend into a valley hidden from us by the intervening foothills.
There behind these hills flowed the Little Yenisei, the last largeriver before reaching Mongolia proper. About ten kilometers fromthe river we spied a column of smoke rising up out of the wood.
Two of the officers slipped away to make an investigation. For along time they did not return and we, fearful lest something hadhappened, moved off carefully in the direction of the smoke, allready for a fight if necessary. We finally came near enough tohear the voices of many people and among them the loud laugh of oneof our scouts. In the middle of a meadow we made out a large tentwith two tepees of branches and around these a crowd of fifty orsixty men. When we broke out of the forest all of them rushedforward with a joyful welcome for us. It appeared that it was alarge camp of Russian officers and soldiers who, after their escapefrom Siberia, had lived in the houses of the Russian colonists andrich peasants in Urianhai.
"What are you doing here?" we asked with surprise.
"Oh, ho, you know nothing at all about what has been going on?"replied a fairly old man who called himself Colonel Ostrovsky. "InUrianhai an order has been issued from the Military Commissioner tomobilize all men over twenty-eight years of age and everywheretoward the town of Belotzarsk are moving detachments of thesePartisans. They are robbing the colonists and peasants and killingeveryone that falls into their hands. We are hiding here fromthem."The whole camp counted only sixteen rifles and three bombs,belonging to a Tartar who was traveling with his Kalmuck guide tohis herds in Western Mongolia. We explained the aim of our journeyand our intention to pass through Mongolia to the nearest port onthe Pacific. The officers asked me to bring them out with us. Iagreed. Our reconnaissance proved to us that there were noPartisans near the house of the peasant who was to ferry us overthe Little Yenisei. We moved off at once in order to pass asquickly as possible this dangerous zone of the Yenisei and t............