SEQUEL OF MY DESERT JOURNEY 937 
provisions for a month for every man and animal in the 
caravan. In fact, I cannot reckon up all the proofs of 
kindness and friendship which that excellent mandarin 
lavished upon me. There is however one thing I must 
mention. He procured me a Chinese interpreter, Fong 
Shi, a pleasant and agreeable young Chinaman, who wrote 
his mother-tongue with ease and spoke Jagatai Turki 
fluently, and — did not smoke opium. He left his wife 
and child behind him in Khotan, Liu Darin making 
himself answerable for their maintenance. But I also 
paid Fong Shi three months’ salary in advance, and that 
money he gave to his wife. Whenever I could find 
leisure, he was to give me lessons in Chinese, and we 
beran at once, even before we left Khotan. 
When evening came, Islam let down the blinds before 
the windows and lighted a couple of stearine candles ; 
and then I sat down and worked on steadily till two 
o’clock in the morning. One dark and stormy night I 
was awakened by Yolldash barking like a crazed thing 
at one of the windows. But owing to the melancholy 
moaningf of the wind in the trees I was unable to hear 
o 
anything unusual. I crept to the bell. The wire was 
cut ; though I never knew whether it was broken by 
the storm or done on purpose. I went out upon the 
terrace ; the dog, quivering with rage, instantly jumped 
down into the bushes. I .saw a couple of dark figures 
stealing away towards the garden-wall. I hastened to 
Islam, who had the firearms, and woke him up. He took 
a rifle and fired two or three shots at random. The next 
morning we found a ladder propped against the wall. 
The thieves, for such the intruders were, had left it 
behind them in their hurried flight. After that I always 
kept a loaded revolver by my side. We also stationed 
two night-watchmen in the garden ; and, as the custom 
is in protecting the bazaars against thieves at night, they 
sounded three strokes upon a drum every minute. Hence- 
forward I was not disturbed. 
But the time flew rapidly. I could not afford to 
sacrifice more than one month to rest, and soon longed 
11.-18 
