A FALSE ALARM. 63 



owing" to the thick underwood, and approaching' 

 twihght, could not overtake the fugitives. We all 

 assembled round the deserted camp fire, on which 

 stood an iron bowl containing food, with a bag of pro- 

 visions lying near it. Judging from the small size 

 of the cooking vessel that the party could not be 

 numerous, and that after all they might not be 

 robbers, our companions began holloaing in Mongo- 

 lian, Tangutan, and Chinese to invite the strangers to 

 return. The only response vouchsafed was a shot, 

 fired from a clump of bushes on the brow of the hill, 

 which whistled close by us. In return we fired 

 about fifteen times in the direction of the smoke, the 

 lamas joining in, and Randzemba of course taking a 

 leading part. For a long while afterwards he could 

 talk of nothing else but the breechloaders, and on re- 

 turning to camp in answer to all questions put to him 

 by his companions, he would exclaim, ' Ay lama, lama, 

 lama ! ' vehemently shaking his head and wringing 

 his hands to express his unutterable astonishment. 



We determined to mount guard that night, and 

 lay down to rest with our guns under our heads as 

 usual. Hardly had I fallen asleep when I was 

 roused by the report of a shot close to our tent, 

 followed by a loud cry. Seizing our guns and 

 revolvers, we ran to the door, and found that the 

 sentry had fired into the air. * Why did you do 

 that ? ' I asked him. ' To let them know wq are 

 watching,' was the answer. The Chinese soldiers 

 frequently did this, at least the militia assembled for 



VOL. II. F 



