CHAPTER L. 
A RESCUE PARTY 
M ay 13th. The four merchants continued their 
journey towards Khotan. The two young' hunters 
went off amongst the underwoods ; but after the lapse of 
an hour returned with a deer {boghe or maral) which they 
had shot the evening before. It was flayed and quartered, 
and Islam very soon had an excellent soup ready. The 
deer’s flesh was both delicate and tasty. 
One of the hunters, Kasim Akhun, told me that the 
sand in the desert, which stretched between the Khotan- 
daria and the Keriya-daria, was very high ; but in crossing 
it you could get water by digging wells during the first 
few days. 
The season was however already too far advanced, and 
I therefore gave up my original plan of crossing that 
portion of the desert as well. 
During the course of the day the father of the two young 
hunters arrived. Ahmed Merghen (“ Merghen ” means 
“ hunter ) was a splendid type of the Central Asiatic, tall, 
slim, broad-shouldered, with a big nose and a pointed 
imperial. He was very friendly, and took a great interest 
in our adventures ; and gave us valuable advice in our 
consultations for organizing a rescue party. Nobody 
could have been more willing than he was to make a 
trip into the desert. He was a godsend to us. He 
remembered having once lost his way whilst hunting, 
and then passed near the three poplars where I and 
Kasim had made our signal-fire. 
The morning was spent in arranging the details of the 
rescue expedition, and at one o’clock the men set out from 
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