Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/113

Rh earth. They would all have been exterminated by the evil spirits! Do you understand?"

In evident appreciation of this dissertation and of the facts behind it the Chinese showed a fine set of immense yellow teeth and nodded his head in pleasure. He apparently preferred to deal with men armed with carbines than with unassailable and always treacherous spirits.

It was not until a little before noon that we heard the voices of approaching people and among these recognized the deep bass tones of Rusoff's laugh. He soon appeared with two Cossacks and ten of the Chinese workmen, carrying the pyroxylin, spades, pumps and picks.

"We must take food before the battle!" insisted Gorloff. "The sun is already high in the heavens."

We finished quickly our meal of tea, bread and conserve, as we were all anxious to see the solution of the mystery in the shaft. Leaving the Chinese in a safe place under the charge of one of the older workmen, we five foreigners again approached the mouth of the shaft. Rusoff first crawled into the gallery, and, in his resounding bass, summoned the unknown garrison of the subterranean fortress to surrender, promising them liberty and assuring them that we sought entrance into their fastness only for the purpose of studying the coal and not for pursuing them. After repeating his proposals once more in Chinese, he crawled back out of the shaft and concealed himself behind a heap of stones at the mouth. For some minutes after this silence reigned in the cavern, only to be broken by another carbine volley and the cries of several men, as our elves made bold for an attack. In answer we began shooting into the shaft and kept it up for a considerable time. We could tell that our intangible enemy was in retreat, as the voices now sounded from a greater distance down the shaft.