Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XXVII.—Escorted Back—A Fresh Attempt
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
ESCORTED BACK.—A FRESH ATTEMPT. 407
do before the onset of a sandstorm in the desert. A
furious blast was sweeping across the highlands, and the
thick darkness which accompanied the hail-squalls made
the night fully two hours longer than usual. All night it
rained violently, and the moon, our best friend on the
way out, never once showed herself. This time I was to
take the middle watch, and at 11 o’clock I went out to
see how Shagdur was getting on. I found him sitting
amongst the animals in the mud and the rain, and as I
approached him he bade me in a cautious whisper,
" Listen !
" Then he told me he had just heard foot-
steps, and thought they were the footsteps of a man. I
walked in the direction from which the suspicious sounds
came, and found that it was only Malenki who had given
occasion to the false alarm. On a pitch-dark night like
that, when you can’t see your hand before your face, you
have nothing to guide you except sounds. Nor were
things made any the more comfortable when our good
Lama began, as he often did, to talk in his sleep, and in a
tone of complaint to call upon Sirkin, as if he were in
distress and needed help.
With the view of seeing as much of the country as I
could, I chose a different route from that which we had
followed on the journey out. But this led us into a tangle
of hills, where the ground was marshy and treacherous.
Once it took us several hours to get over a wretched
little height on which the animals sank in up to the saddle-
girths. We were getting quite worn out by this night-watch-
ing, these long marches and the incessant rain and hail.
On the 1 8th August we gave ourselves a couple of hours’
rest on a hill-side. The air was quiet and still, and the
temperature rose to over 66° ; in fact it was so hot that
we were almost afraid of sunstroke. It was terribly hard
work to get up and start again, for we lay stretched at
full length in the sun while the animals grazed. But we
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
