HUMAN BEINGS AT LAST 6ii 
use of Kasim. On the other hand, I found I was unable 
to travel far towards the south. Perhaps it would be 
best to wait, and as soon as the storm ceased, by 
means of signal fires, warn any persons who might 
chance to be travelling the forest road that ran along 
the river-bank. 
I therefore cast about for a dense thicket close to the 
pool, and well protected from the storm. Placing my 
boots and cap under my head for a pillow, I slept deeply 
and heavily — the first good sound sleep I had had since 
1st May. When I awoke, it was already dark and the 
storm still roared through the forest. It was eight o’clock 
in the evening. After another good drink out of the pool, 
I made a big bonfire, and sat down beside it, and stared 
into the flames for a long time. But I was tormented 
by the pangs of hunger. With the view of cheating my 
stomach a little, I gathered some grass and shoots of 
reed, and a bunch of young frogs out of the pool. The 
frogs were refractory ; so I gave them a nip at the back 
of the head and swallowed them whole. After “supper” 
I scraped together a big pile of dry branches to feed the 
fire with during the night. 
If only I had had Yolldash with me to keep me com- 
pany ! Perhaps he was still alive, and had followed our 
trail to the river. I whistled as loudly as I could, whistled 
again and again. But no Yolldash came scampering up. 
Then I dropped off again. 
May 7th. The storm had ceased, although the atmo- 
sphere was still heavily charged with dust. This “ black 
buran ” suggested a gloomy and depressing idea. It was 
the first since the caravan collapsed. It had come to cast 
the first shovelfuls of earth over my dead attendants and 
the camels, and it would blot out every trace of our trail 
through the sand ; so that Islam Bai, supposing he still 
lived, would perhaps never be able to find us. But then 
again, he had a compass. And even supposing we did 
come across men, and supposing they were willing to go 
with us into the desert as far as the tent, we should now 
experience the utmost difficulty in finding it, seeing that 
