crowd of Chinese, evidently bent on his pursuit. The tracks showed that the 
surveyor had been headed off in more than one direction, but had finally made 
his way to the end of a deep ravine, where all signs of him were lost, though 
there were the marks of a crowd of Chinese at this spot. From these indica- 
tions I concluded that the unfortunate man had been captured, and had 
probably been taken to one of the neighbouring villages. I therefore decided 
to make for Wa-kang-ch’éng, a distant village on the high plateau where 
Hazrat Ali had been first attacked, to see if any traces of the surveyor could 
be found there, and also to effect a possible junction with the promised search- 
party. 
‘‘En yvoute we arrived at a village, all the able-bodied inhabitants of 
which were absent, and were informed by some old men and women that they 
had heard rumours of the murder of a foreigner but were ignorant of any details. 
“As darkness was now coming on we headed for Wa-kang-ch’éng, which 
was reached about 11 p.m. Here we learned that Clark’s party had passed 
through about five hours before and were now at Ma-chia-k’ou. I found a 
lady-missionary in the village, and, in view of the disturbed state of the 
vicinity, told off Muhammad Husein and one of my servants to escort her to 
Lan-chou. I myself with one servant hurried to Ma-chia-k’ou, only to find on 
arrival that Clark’s party had passed through an hour before. By pushing on 
rapidly, I managed to catch them up about 4 a.m. Clark informed me that in 
spite of strong representations to the officials, the promised search-party had 
never been sent, and that, fearing for the surveyor’s safety, he had been 
obliged to ask the four available Europeans to push off with him at once in 
relief. Clark, before leaving Lan-chou, had informed the officials of his 
intentions, but they acted in the usual dilatory manner and afforded him no 
assistance.” 
The party, now united once more, determined to make a thorough search 
through the neighbouring villages, and at the first one entered found several ~ 
Ya-mén runners. comfortably smoking in one of the huts, whilst their horses 
were tethered outside. When questioned, they said they had been sent out to 
investigate the affair but had as yet discovered nothing. This was hardly 
surprising, as, except for themselves, the village was absolutely deserted ! 
These loafers having flatly declined to assist us in the search, we visited 
several of the neighbouring villages, all of which we found deserted except for 
the women and children, who disclaimed any knowledge of the affair. 
We now came to a tableland, intersected by deep ravines, and on several 
commanding positions we observed parties of men collecting. With a view to 
66 
