m he was
speaking. During the conversation we asked Kanine if there were Russian
colonists near by, to which he answered with knitted brow and a look of
disgust on his face:

"There is one rich old man, Bobroff, who lives a verst away from our
station; but I would not advise you to visit him. He is a miserly,
inhospitable old fellow who does not like guests."

During these words of her husband Madame Kanine dropped her eyes and
contracted her shoulders in something resembling a shudder. Gorokoff and
his sister smoked along indifferently. I very clearly remarked all this
as well as the hostile tone of Kanine, the confusion of his wife and
the artificial indifference of Gorokoff; and I determined to see the
old colonist given such a bad name by Kanine. In Uliassutai I knew
two Bobroffs. I said to Kanine that I had been asked to hand a letter
personally to Bobroff and, after finishing my tea, put on my overcoat
and went out.

The house of Bobroff stood in a deep sink in the mountains, surrounded
by a high fence over which the low roofs of the houses could be seen. A
light shone through the window. I knocked at the gate. A furious barking
of dogs answered me and through the cracks of the fence I made out four
huge black Mongol dogs, showing their teeth and growling as they rushed
toward the gate. Inside the court someone opened the door and called
out: "Who is there?"

I answered that I was traveling through from Uliassutai. The dogs were
first caught and chained and I was then admitted by a man who looked me
over very carefully and inquiringly from head to foot. A revolver handle
stuck out of his pocket. Satisfied with his observations and learning
that I knew his relatives, he warmly welcomed me to the house and
presented me to his wife, a dignified old woman, and to his beautiful
little adopted daughter, a girl of five years. She had been found on
the plain beside the dead body of her mother exhausted in her attempt to
escape from the Bolsheviki in Siberia.

Bobroff told me that the Russian detachment of Kazagrandi had succeeded
in driving the Red troops away from the Kosogol and that we could
consequently continue our trip to Khathyl without danger.

"Why did you not stop with me instead of with those brigands?" asked the
old fellow.

I began to question him and received some very important news. It
seemed that Kanine was a Bolshevik, the agent of the Irkutsk Soviet, and
stationed here for purposes of observati