It was very evident our Soyot had lost his way; and on his face I noticed marked fear.
"The old devils of the cursed forest will not allow us to pass," he whispered with trembling lips.

"It is a very ominous sign.

We must return to Kharga to the Noyon." But I threatened him and he took the lead again evidently without hope or effort to find the way.

Fortunately, one of our party, an Urianhai hunter, noticed the blazes on the trees, the signs of the road which our guide had lost.

Following these, we made our way through the wood, came into and crossed a belt of burned larch timber and beyond this dipped again into a small live forest bordering the bottom of the mountains crowned with the eternal snows.