Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/89

Rh single stroke; while those of the others would be easygoing for him, as they were all thin and as emaciated as smoked fish.

Early the next morning we watched these callous jesters with the chains on their necks marching away to Udzimi, from where they were to make their final journey to the execution grounds.

After this combined work of the Cossacks and the officials, I thought that we should have no further trouble in our concession, but I found, unfortunately, that I was mistaken. No sooner had the Cossack detachment left than word came in to me that a gang of hunghutzes had attacked a small store of flour and beans well into the forest, robbed it and burned it down. Almost every day the Cossacks were fired upon by this invisible enemy, which lay in wait everywhere, behind bushes in the undergrowth, behind the great rocks which had in past ages rolled down from the mountain cliffs and even from cover near the forest operations or around the plant itself. With our limited forces it was impossible to capture these snipers, whose boldness grew with each succeeding escapade.