, is the frontier
town. Kiakhta is a sort of neutral town inhabited only by merchants, and
by a treaty between Russia and China no officer or stranger is allowed
to sleep there. Across the frontier, a few miles away, is the Chinese,
or I suppose I should say the Mongol, town of Maimatchin. Beyond the
fact that the people about there are Mongols rather than Chinese, and
that such religion as they have is that of Thibet rather than China, for
their priests are called lamas, I know nothing except that the caravan
route from Kiakhta to Pekin is somewhere about a thousand miles, and
that the camels do it in about thirty-five days."

"Then they make about thirty miles a day," Godfrey said. "I suppose
there must be wells at their halting-places."

"Ah! that is another matter, Godfrey. You see a camel can go three days
without water easily enough, and of course they would carry skins of
water for the travellers."

"Oh, that is no odds," Godfrey said. "One could walk the ninety miles
easily enough in three days, and there would be no difficulty in
carrying water enough for that time. Besides, one would of course join a
caravan if one could. Luckily enough I had two hundred roubles in notes
when I was captured, and they restored them as well as my watch and
other things when I started. I suppose the Mongols are just as fond of
money as other people. The Chinese are, certainly, and I might get some
Chinese tea-merchant to let me go in his train for a consideration."

The Russian laughed. "'Pon my word, Godfrey, I begin to think you will
do it."

"There can't be anything impossible in doing it," Godfrey said. "Why,
did not Burton disguise himself and go with a caravan to Mecca and visit
the holy places, and that was twenty times as difficult and dangerous.
Going along the caravan route of course the difficulty is the language
and the Buriats. If one could talk Mongol, or whatever the fellows call
their language, it would be easy sailing; but I own that it is a
difficult thing to get along and explain what you want with people who
cannot understand a word you say. I suppose the Buriats speak Russian."

"I should say that a great many of them do, Godfrey. I know there are
missionaries and schools among them, and some of them live in settled
villages, though they are so wedded to their own wandering life that
they build their houses on the exact model of their tents, with a hole
in the roof to let the smoke out. Still, as they d