596 
THROUGH ASIA 
there, tossing and turning all day long from the heat, 
without being" able to sleep a wink. Kasim was stretched 
out on his back, muttering deliriously and moaning to 
himself ; nor did he answer when I spoke to him, not even 
when I shook him. 
1 he day seemed as if it would never end. My patience 
was tried to the uttermost ; for I felt certain the river 
must be in our immediate vicinity, and I was dying to 
get to it. 
It was seven o’clock before I was able to dress myself. 
I called upon Kasim to come with me to the water. But 
he was beaten at last. He shook his head, and with a 
gesture of despair, signed to me to go on alone, drink, 
and bring back water to him. Otherwise he would just 
die where he lay. 
I took off the blade of the spade and hung it on a 
branch which stretched across the path, so that I might 
be able to find again the point where we entered the 
forest ; for I now had hopes of being able to recover 
the baggage we had left behind : we had only to go 
due west from the place where we struck the forest and 
we should conie to it. I considered that Islam and the 
other men were already dead. The spade -shaft I took 
with me. It would be a staff to help me along, and 
would also serve as a weapon if I wanted one. 
I cut right across the forest, still directing my course 
to the east. It was anything but easy work. Two or 
three times I very nearly g‘ot stuck fast in the thorny 
bushes. I tore my clothes, and scratched my hands. 
I rested unceasingly on roots and fallen tree-trunks ; I 
was fearfully tired. Twilight came on. It grew dark. 
It cost me almost Inconceivable efforts to keep awake. 
Then all at once the forest came to an end, as abruptly 
as though it had been smitten by fire, and to the east 
stretched a dead level plain of hard, consolidated clay 
and sand. It lay five or six feet below the level of the 
forest, and showed not a single trace of a sand-dune. 
I recognized It at once ; it could not possibly be anything 
but the bed of the Khotan-daria. And I soon had my 
