Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/56

44 After having visited the oil mills on the following morning, I felt free to go hunting during the period of rest which we had to give our horses following their strenuous trip of the preceding day. I took the Cossack Nicholas with me and headed north for the edge of the inundated lands, where I had seen the snipe and other water-birds. For a considerable distance we trudged over low hillocks covered with scrub oak. Pheasant cocks in their brilliant colouring and the hens of quieter hues frequently flashed before us with loud squawks and that powerful drumming of the wings that sends a thrill through a hunter's heart. But this day I was to take none of them home with me, as they all rose at long range and as I had only small snipe shot with me.

Chance seemed against us. At a distance of between two and three miles from the village we saw a solitary house situated at the bottom of a rather deep vale with two saddled horses tied to a post in front of it. When we had made a hundred yards farther, two Chinese ran out of the house with carbines in their hands, sprang adroitly upon their horses and galloped off toward the farther end of the dell, where they disappeared around a turn in the road. In just a little while they reappeared on a hillock farther on, stopped and began observing us attentively.

"It is a hunghutze patrol," whispered the Cossack in fear. "We must turn back."

Under these conditions hunting was impossible, as we might easily have fallen into the hands of these Chinese brigands, who during the Russo-Japanese War had proved themselves to be very cruel to the "man-tzu," as they designated all Europeans. We immediately returned to the village and left the same day for Harbin. As we learned that a junk laden with eggs and chickens was