26 ACROSS, MONGOLIAN PLAINS 



known that Czechs expected to attack them, and that 

 they would certainly be driven across the borders into 

 Mongolia if defeated. In that event what would be 

 the attitude of the Mongolian government? Would it 

 intern the belligerents, or allow them to use the Urga 

 district as a base of operations? 



As a matter of fact, the question had been settled just 

 before my arrival. The Czechs had made the expected 

 attack with about five hundred men; all the Magyars, 

 to the number of several thousand, had surrendered, and 

 the Bolsheviki had disappeared like mists before the sun. 

 The front of operations had moved in a single night 

 almost two thousand miles away to the Omsk district, 

 and it was certain that Mongolia would be left in peace. 

 Mr. Price's work also was done, for the telegraph from 

 Urga to Irkutsk was again in operation and thus com- 

 munication was established with Peking. 



The morning after my arrival Mr. Guptil and I rode 

 out to see the town. Never have I visited such a city of 

 contrasts, or one to which I was so eager to return. As 

 we did come back, I shall tell, in a future chapter, of 

 what we found there. 



