Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Tragedy of Russia in Pacific Asia, Vol. 2 of 2 At seven o'clock we separated, and I entered the Ta Lama's bed-chamber to explain the situation to him, to say that I was going, and to bid him farewell. As he partly arose from his couch in amazement at such an unusual visit, and was supporting his venerable frame on one arm and trying to see, a great explosion convulsed the immense paper windows of the monastery, striking awe into the souls of the lamas who were looking on and those gathered in the outer court. As I hurriedly left the house I knew that this saluta tory explosion, which shook the entire region, had wrecked the immense Hun River steel bridge three miles south, and I realized at once that the whole main body of the army was moving; there could be no other conclusion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.