following him like a shadow, constantly reminding him that he would strangle him like a mouse if he made one move to betray us.  I fear the young guide did not greatly enjoy the trip with my gigantic friend puffing all too loudly with the unusual exertions.  At last the fences of nagan hushun were in sight and nothing between us and them save the open plain, where our group would have been easily spotted; so that we decided to crawl up one by one, save that the Chinese was retained in the society of my trusted friend.  Fortunately there were many heaps of frozen manure on the plain, which we made use of as cover to lead us right up to our objective point, the fence of the enclosures.  In the shadow of this we slunk along to the courtyard where the voices of the excited crowd beckoned us.  As we took good vantage points in the darkness for listening and making observations, we remarked two extraordinary things in our immediate neighborhood.

Another invisible guest was present with us at the Chinese gathering.  He lay on the ground with his head in a hole dug by the dogs under the fence.  He was perfectly still and evidently had not heard our advance.  Nearby in a ditch lay a white horse with his nose muzzled and a little further away stood another saddled horse tied to a fence.

In the courtyard there was a great hubbub.  About two thousand men were shouting, arguing and flourishing their arms about in wild gesticulations.  Nearly all were armed with rifles, revolvers, swords and axes.  In among the crowd circulated the gamins, constantly talking, handing out papers, explaining and assuring.  Finally a big, broad-shouldered Chinese mounted the well combing, waved his rifle about over his head and opened a tirade in strong, sharp tones.

“He is assuring the people,” said our interpreter, “that they must do here what the Chinese have done in Kobdo and must secure from the Commissioner the assurance of an order to his guard not to prevent the carrying out of their plans.  Also that the Chinese Commissioner must demand from the Russians all their weapons.  ’Then we shall take vengeance on the Russians for their Blagoveschensk crime when they drowned three thousand Chinese in 1900.  You remain here while I go to the Commissioner and talk with him.’”

He jumped down from the well and quickly made his way to the gate toward the town.  At once I saw the man who was lying with his head under the fence draw back out of his hole, take his white horse from the ditch and then run over to untie the other horse and lead them both back to our side, which was away from the city.  He left the second horse there and hid himself around the corner of the hushun.  The spokesman went out of the gate and, seeing his horse over on the other side of the enclosure, slung his rifle across his back and started for his mount.  He had gone about half way when the stranger behind the corner of the fence suddenly galloped out and in a flash literally swung the man clear from the ground up across the pommel of his saddle, where we saw him tie the mouth of the semi-strangled Chinese with a cloth and dash off with him toward the west away from the town.