Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/111

Rh the coal to be a lignite, or brown coal, very similar to the deposits I had seen in the Ussurian country.

We had already spent some hours in the gulch, when suddenly the Chinese, who had been wandering around the hillsides, ran to us and reported in an excited manner that he had seen smoke issuing from one of the shaft openings farther along. I took it for granted that the coal was probably burning and was very much annoyed over this possibility, as it would make working operations dangerous and, perhaps, even impossible.

As we approached the shaft and saw a thin stream of smoke issuing from it, I realized, just as soon as I smelled it, that it was not coal smoke but that of wood, and jumped at once to the conclusion that there must be someone within the gallery. Recalling the traces of the hastily extinguished fire we had discovered the evening before, I felt that the matter invited further investigation. Prompted by this thought, we entered the gallery and found that it was high enough to permit us to walk in it, if we bent our heads slightly. Soon the darkness shut us in and, as we continued our advance by striking matches, calling to one another to keep in touch, suddenly a deafening roar pulled us up. Reverberation swelled it into thunder, as it was repeated a second, third and even a fourth time.

"Shooting!" cried Gorloff, as the Chinese ran howling to the entrance. I ordered Gorloff to call out in both Russian and Chinese that whoever was there should stop shooting and come to meet us. To this the only answer was another volley, which, however, did us no damage. Evidently the denizens of the mine were shooting somewhere in a side gallery to frighten us and were afraid to expose themselves in the main shaft.