CHAPTER LXXIV. 
THE SEQUEL OF MY DESERT JOURNEY 
I T will be remembered how, during our disastrous 
journey through the desert of Takla-makan in April 
and May 1895, we had been obliged to leave behind the 
travelling-tent, and nearly all our baggage, to the value 
of about ;^2 75 ; and also two men who lay dying of thirst. 
In Kashgar the widows of these two men came to me, 
weeping and begging me to give them back their 
husbands. I consoled them as well as I could, and gave 
them what money I was able to afford. After that I 
was so occupied with the preparations for my journey to 
the Pamirs, that the occurrences of the desert faded from 
my recollection. I soon forgot the ' privations I had 
endured and the loss I had suffered ; but the memory of 
my marvellous escape and rescue was constantly in my 
mind, steeling me with confidence in moments of danger. 
When the Swedish army officer’s revolver, which had 
been left on the verge of the desert amongst the baggage 
of the camel Nahr, turned up so unexpectedly at Kashgar 
in the summer of 1895, our suspicions were certainly 
aroused. But Consul-General Petrovsky and the Dao Tai 
sent instructions to Khotan for fresh inquiries to be made ; 
but they led to nothing. I myself reached Khotan early 
in January 1896, and when I went away, I was fully 
convinced that the tent, baggage, and two dead men were 
long ago buried in the sand, where they would remain 
for a multitude of years. Imagine therefore my surprise 
when, the very day I got back to Khotan, Liu Darin sent 
to my house the greater part of my lost belongings, which 
I had not seen for more than a year. 
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