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304 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
tortures of mental agony. His mind was torn between his
duty as a Lamaist and his personal devotion to me. For
piety, for humihty, and for real goodness, he reminded me
of his colleague in Kim, one of the best characters that
Rudyard Kipling has ever drawn. At Kum-kol, then, he
was to make his decision, choosing whether he would prefer
his safe quiet cell in the temple monastery at Kara-shahr,
or the dangerous uncertainties and risks of keeping company
with me.
At Unkurluk we bought twelve sheep from some shep-
herds, and then, climbing over a pass 13,000 feet high, we
rode down into the valley of Chimen, where we had been the
year before. Here Shagdur was seized with a species of
mountain-sickness, with high fever and extraordinarily
rapid pulse. For two or three days I was extremely anxious
about him, but he soon recovered sufficiently to allow us
to proceed.
On the ist June we encamped on the left shore of the
lake of Kum-kol, and had nothing else to do except to wait
for the main caravan. This was almost the last quiet rest-
ful time I enjoyed during the remainder of the journey.
The silence of the waste was unbroken, save for the east
wind that blew, and the monotonous beat of the waves
against the shore. I now dismissed the asses which had
brought up the maize for our own horses. The grass was,
however, so poor that the horses ran away, and Mollah
Shah had no end of trouble to catch them and bring them
back again.
The 4th June was a beautiful bright day ; the men were
asleep in their tent, all except the Lama, who, having fallen
in love with my telescope, was sitting outside my yurt
sweeping the horizon with it. All at once he rushed in and
announced that he saw something which must be the ex-
pected caravan, of the existence of which he had hitherto
had rather hazy ideas. Quite right—at the foot of the
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