1 30 By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



passes through the hills at this point, and its 

 many smashed insulators, not to mention a '303 

 cartridge picked up near the water, told us of 

 the recent passage of a caravan of very up-to- 

 date goods. For in Seistan we stand on the 

 brink of one of the rivulets and I do not 

 know that the use of the diminutive is justified 

 by which modern weapons are pouring into 

 the East. The talk of universal peace is after 

 all confined to very few, though doubtless very 

 advanced people. As soon as one travels even 

 a little eastward, it is quite inaudible, while 

 instead, one becomes aware of a hum not loud 

 but insistent, and in many different languages, 

 that sounds like a cry for more and more 

 arms. As is well known, the Afghan gun- 

 runners, of whom we had just seen the traces, 

 are in the habit of dribbling by twos and 

 threes to a given rendezvous at some remote 

 landing-place on the Persian Gulf, where they 

 receive consignments of arms brought from the 

 Arabian coast in dhows that have succeeded in 

 eluding our gun -boats. After passing through 

 Persian Baluchistan, the arms caravans often 

 make for the " Panther hills," where they rest 

 for a few days before making their last march 

 across the long stretch of waterless desert to the 

 Helm and. Not very like the stealthy movements 



