Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/110

98 standing there on the k'ang. One of the hunghutzes, in scouting about, discovered the sugar and put his dirty hand down into it. In a flash I seized my boot, that was lying at my feet, shied it with all my force at the fellow and shouted at the same time:

"Out of there, you thief! Wake up, wake up!"

My companions jumped to their feet, not understanding what the trouble was but pulling out their guns to be ready for anything. At this sudden turn of affairs the hunghutzes were caught off their guard, ran out into the yard and made off amid the barking of the dogs without even trying to come back and salvage their equipment. Through this we gained three carbines, three cartridge belts, three knives and as many Chinese long coats with their girdles of ordinary black cloth. We gave the knives and the gowns to our host and, armed with the carbines, started out at dawn under his leadership for the ravine.

The Chinese took us directly to the mouth of an abandoned shaft, partially closed with earth and stones that had slid down into it. Finding so quickly what we were searching for, I immediately despatched Rusoff to the village to secure a horse and hurry to the steamer to bring back the men, the tools and the pyroxylin needed to blow up the rocks that had choked the entrance to the working. Meanwhile, we two went farther along, and the Chinese showed us several entrances to old shafts, the examination of which tended to prove to me conclusively that work had been carried on here simultaneously in several places. We found in some of the gradually descending galleries remnants of plank and beam timbering. With our geologist's hammer and a small pick we took out a few samples and found, on bringing them to the light, that externally they indicated