Outside were heard the horses' hoofs followed by men's voices and a knock at the door.
"Come in," said Gay.
Two young men entered, their moustaches and beards white and their cheeks blazing red from the cold.

They were dressed in the common Siberian overcoat with the big Astrakhan caps, but they had no weapons.
Questions began.

It developed that it was a detachment of White peasants from the Irkutsk and Yakutsk districts who had been fighting with the Bolsheviki.

They had been defeated somewhere in the vicinity of Irkutsk and were now trying to make a junction with Kazagrandi.

The leader of this band was a socialist, Captain Vassilieff, who had suffered much under the Czar because of his tenets.
Our troubles had vanished but we decided to start immediately to Muren Kure, as we had gathered our information and were in a hurry to make our report.