576 
THROUGH ASIA 
one city to another through the sand-wastes of East 
Turkestan. He looked terribly shrivelled up and wasted 
away, shrunk to a mummy-hke old man. His copper- 
brown face was the only part of him that still wore any 
look of freshness. His breathing came very slowly and 
irregularly, and every now and again sighs mingled with 
the death ruckle which broke over his lips. Again I 
stroked his dry, wizened brow, placed his head in a more 
comfortable position, and said in as calm a tone as my 
emotion would allow me, that we were going to hurry 
on ahead, and should soon find water. We would fill 
the pitchers and hasten back to him. I bade him lie 
where he was till his strength returned ; then he might 
come along our trail to meet us, so as to shorten the 
distance we should have to travel back. He tried to 
lift one hand, mumbling something, of which the only 
word I caught was “Allah.” I understood only too well 
and so perhaps did he — that we should never meet 
again. He had not many hours left to live. His eyes 
were dim and glazed ; his slumber would pass gradually 
over into the deep sleep of death. He was entering 
upon his eternal rest, environed by the mighty silence, 
and by the ever-shifting sand-dunes moving on towards 
their mysterious goal. 
With my heart bleeding and lacerated by self-reproaches 
at having this life upon my conscience, I dragged myself 
away from the dying man. 
I also took farewell of Yollchi, and exhorted him to 
follow on along the trail of the caravan. That was the 
only way he could save his life. I did not upbraid him 
for leading us astray ; nor did I reproach him with having 
deceived us, when he said he was well acquainted with 
the desert, and within four days would bring us to a 
place where we could get water by dieeinsf for it. 
VV hat good would it have done, if I had rebuked him 
for putting only a four clays’ supply of water in the 
tanks instead of a ten days’ supply ? It would only 
have embittered the man’s last moments ; and I could 
not do that, I was so terribly sorry for him. 
