about twelve miles from zain we saw from a ridge a snakelike lineof riders crossing the valley, which detachment we met half an hourlater on the shore of a deep, swampy stream. the group consistedof mongols, buriats and tibetans armed with russian rifles. at thehead of the column were two men, one of whom in a huge blackastrakhan and black felt cape with red caucasian cowl on hisshoulders blocked my road and, in a coarse, harsh voice, demandedof me: "who are you, where are you from and where are you going?"i gave also a laconic answer. they then said that they were adetachment of troops from baron ungern under the command of captainvandaloff. "i am captain bezrodnoff, military judge."suddenly he laughed loudly. his insolent, stupid face did notplease me and, bowing to the officers, i ordered my riders to move.
"oh no!" he remonstrated, as he blocked the road again. "i cannotallow you to go farther. i want to have a long and seriousconversation with you and you will have to come back to zain forit."i protested and called attention to the letter of colonelkazagrandi, only to hear bezrodnoff answer with coldness:
"this letter is a matter of colonel kazagrandi's and to bring youback to zain and talk with you is my affair. now give me yourweapon."but i could not yield to this demand, even though death werethreatened.
"listen," i said. "tell me frankly. is yours really a detachmentfighting against the boisheviki or is it a red contingent?""no, i assure you!" replied the buriat officer vandaloff,approaching me. "we have already been fighting the bolsheviki forthree years.""then i cannot hand you my weapon," i calmly replied. "i broughtit from soviet siberia, have had many fights with this faithfulweapon and now i am to be disarmed by white officers! it is anoffence that i cannot allow."with these words i threw my rifle and my mauser into the stream.
the officers were confused. bezrodnoff turned red with anger.
"i freed you and myself from humiliation," i explained.
bezrodnoff in silence turned his horse, the whole detachment ofthree hundred men passed immediately before me and only the lasttwo riders stopped, ordered my mongols to turn my cart round andthen fell in behind my little group. so i was arrested! one ofthe horsemen behind me was a russian and he told me that bezrodnoffcarried with him many death decrees. i was sure that mine wasamong them.
stupid, very stupid! what was the use of fighting one's waythrough red detachments, of being frozen and hungry, of almostperishing in tibet only to die from a bullet of one of bezrodnoff'smongols? for such a pleasure it was not worth while to travel solong and so far! in every siberian "cheka" i could have had thisend so joyfully accorded me.
when we arrived at zain shabi, my luggage was examined andbezrodnoff began to question me in minutest detail about the eventsin uliassutai. we talked about three hours, during which i triedto defend all the officers of uliassutai, maintaining that one mustnot trust only the reports of domojiroff. when our conversationwas finished, the captain stood up and offered his apologies fordetaining me in my journey. afterwards he presented me a finemauser with silver mountings on the handle and said:
"your pride greatly pleased me. i beg you to receive this weaponas a memento of me."the following morning i set out anew from zain shabi, having in mypocket the laissez-passer of bezrodnoff for his outposts.
