The ODVA also struck in the west. There, the Russians had organized a special task force comprising 6,000 infantry and 1,600 cavalry, with modest support in the form of artillery, tanks, and aircraft. On November 17, the Soviet forces surrounded the frontier post of Manchouli and its garrison, while other troops farther east assaulted the Chinese position at Chalainor, taking that town November 18. Manchouli fell to the Soviet attack on November 20.

Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

But like all the other symbolic devourings in the novel, this one too brings its revelation.

[…] and the correct principles of delivering it through the different straits of the pelvis after the head has been decerebrated and crushed.