They shortly made off.

Their shots from the European rifles had given us further proof that they were not Mongols.

We waited until they had disappeared into the woods and then went forward to investigate their tracks, which we found were those of shod horses, clearly corroborating the earlier evidence that they were not Mongols.

Who could they have been?
We never found out; yet what a different relationship they might have borne to our lives, had their shots been true! After we had passed over the divide, we met the Russian colonist D.A.
Teternikoff from Muren Kure, who invited us to stay in his house and promised to secure camels for us from the Lamas.

The cold was intense and heightened by a piercing wind.