lled the
Mongolian princes together and prevailed upon them to offer Semianoff
the title of Emperor of Mongolia. He had other fish to fry, however, but
when his other schemes fail, as I think they must, he will be quite
ready to play the Japanese game in Mongolia as faithfully as he did in
Siberia. Semianoff will be the puppet, but Japan will pull the strings;
that at least is their hope and belief.

About thirty versts west of Manchuli our train was stopped by a red
flag, and a railway workman informed us of a raid upon a homestead by
the side of the railway, the robbers having decamped two hours before
our arrival. The father had two bullets through his chest and one
through the right side of his neck, and had crawled a distance of over a
verst to give information. He was taken up on our train, and we went
forward to the scene of the tragedy. In the small wooden house, covered
with loose feathers, lay the dead body of the mother with her unborn
baby, near by lay a girl of about ten with her head terribly wounded. In
an outhouse was the body of their Chinese boy. My hospital orderly
rendered what aid was possible to the girl, who was carried by Madame
Frank to my carriage for conveyance to the hospital at Manchuli. A
civilian doctor declared both cases hopeless, and the depositions of the
man were taken. Briefly thus:

When the Bolsheviks first occupied Manchuli a railway workman of
anarchist tendencies was appointed Soviet Commissar of the district.
Afterwards, when the Bolshevik power was destroyed and their forces were
driven off the railway, the Bolshevik bands took to the forest, some
engaging in running contraband over the Chinese frontier, others forming
themselves into bands who not only robbed the isolated peasantry, but
forced young men to join them, and afterwards levied toll upon large
villages and small towns. About three in the morning this Bolshevik
Commissar knocked at the cottage door and asked the father to let him
come in, as he was very tired, having had a long journey with
contraband. Believing him to be alone, the man opened the door. The room
was immediately filled with armed men, who demanded his savings or his
life. The commissar, from his knowledge of such matters, believing his
savings to be in the feather pillow, ripped it open and found 4,600
roubles. Having collected all the other small articles of value in the
house, these innocent children of the Revolution held consultation on
the nec