poor sort ; he was at least no longer in the hands, or at the mercy, of Chinese 

 captors. 



Sympathy, of an official sort, was freely proffered ; * It had been an acci- 

 dent, no doubt, and most regrettable ; but one of their own countrymen had 

 been killed as well, making one each side, so that we were now quits.' It was 

 in vain that Mr. Clark appealed for such redress as was possible and for 

 punishment of the guilty parties ; the formula of reply was always the same : 

 * An accident no doubt, and most regrettable,' and concluding invariably with 

 the cold-blooded balancing of human lives. It was just one of those situations 

 where he who cares least comes off best ; and the man, who had lost not only 

 a faithful fellow- worker but a personal friend, was at great disadvantage in 

 face of hide-bound officials, who could treat the fate of their own countryman 

 with the bland unconcern of chess players discussing the sacrifice of a gambit- 

 pawn. That they were not altogether so easy in mind as they would have 

 had it believed, was evident, and they would have given much to be able to 

 produce Hazrat Ali alive ; for, after all, some very searching interrogatories 

 were bound to come from Peking. That they were a little doubtful about the 

 truth of its being an accident was indicated, perhaps, by a tendency to post- 

 date the surveyor's death till after the shooting of the Chinaman ; but this 

 was not very clear, and discussion through interpreters may easily lead to 

 misunderstanding. Eventually it became quite obvious that, if any sort of 

 reparation was to be obtained, this would only be forthcoming at the Capital. 

 However, before there had been time to decide on a course of action, the 

 replies to Mr. Clark's telegrams arrived from the Ministers. These, whilst 

 promising full enquiry, strongly counselled — in fact, allowing for diplomatic 

 forms, peremptorily demanded — the return of the expedition. There was, of 

 course, no alternative but to comply. 



It should be mentioned that on obtaining trustworthy official confirmation 

 of the surveyor's death, Mr. Clark had at once withdrawn the search-party to 

 Lan-chou, as no further good could be done, and the risk of bloodshed was 

 ever present. In spite of the fact that the entire party were now concentrated 

 in Lan-chou, it would have been inconvenient for the whole expedition to start 

 at once on its long march, and the actual details of withdrawal required some 

 little consideration. Mr. Clark's presence in Peking was urgently necessary, 

 and Captain Douglas, as a British officer, had to comply with the Ambassador's 

 instructions at the earliest possible moment ; but at the same time the recent 

 tragedy had opened our eyes to the risks run by a small party travelling in 

 Kansu. However, after due consideration, it was decided that, well-armed 



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