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'^ng, 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 route 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'6ng, which 

 was reached about ii 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-inen 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 



6a 



