wide valley whose upper end was covered with a dense wood. Near
this wood we noticed two horsemen, evidently watching us. Their manner
of sitting in their saddles and the character of their horses told us
that they were not Mongols. We began shouting and waving to them; but
they did not answer. Out of the wood emerged a third and stopped to
look at us. We decided to interview them and, whipping up our horses,
galloped toward them. When we were about one thousand yards from them,
they slipped from their saddles and opened on us with a running fire.
Fortunately we rode a little apart and thus made a poor target for them.
We jumped off our horses, dropped prone on the ground and prepared to
fight. However, we did not fire because we thought it might be a mistake
on their part, thinking that we were Reds. They shortly made off. Their
shots from the European rifles had given us further proof that they were
not Mongols. We waited until they had disappeared into the woods and
then went forward to investigate their tracks, which we found were those
of shod horses, clearly corroborating the earlier evidence that they
were not Mongols. Who could they have been? We never found out; yet what
a different relationship they might have borne to our lives, had their
shots been true!

After we had passed over the divide, we met the Russian colonist D. A.
Teternikoff from Muren Kure, who invited us to stay in his house and
promised to secure camels for us from the Lamas. The cold was intense
and heightened by a piercing wind. During the day we froze to the bone
but at night thawed and warmed up nicely by our tent stove. After two
days we entered the valley of Muren and from afar made out the square
of the Kure with its Chinese roofs and large red temples. Nearby was
a second square, the Chinese and Russian settlement. Two hours more
brought us to the house of our hospitable companion and his attractive
young wife who feasted us with a wonderful luncheon of tasty dishes. We
spent five days at Muren waiting for the camels to be engaged. During
this time many refugees arrived from Khathyl because Colonel Kazagrandi
was gradually falling back upon the town. Among others there were two
Colonels, Plavako and Maklakoff, who had caused the disruption of the
Kazagrandi force. No sooner had the refugees appeared in Muren Kure
than the Mongolian officials announced that the Chinese authorities had
ordered them to drive out all Russian refugees.

"W