uld allow us to
make the venture, we must wait for an order from Peking. This, he said,
would subject us to considerable delay and expense, even if the telegraph
and post were utilized through Siberia and Kiakhta. This was discouraging
indeed. But when we discovered, a few minutes later, that his highness had
to call in the learned secretary to trace our proposed route for him on
the map of China, and even to locate the capital, Peking, we began to
question his knowledge of Chinese diplomacy. The matter was again referred
to the consul, who reported back the following day that his previous
assurances were reliable, that the Tootai would make the necessary vises,
and send away at once, by the regular relay post across the empire, an
open letter that could be read by the officials along the route, and be
delivered long before our arrival at Peking. Such easy success we had not
anticipated. The difficulty, as well as necessity, of obtaining the proper
credentials for traveling in China was impressed upon us by the arrest the
previous day of three Afghan visitors, and by the fact that a German
traveler had been refused, just a few weeks before, permission even to
cross the Mozart pass into Kashgar. So much, we thought, for Russian
friendship.

Upon this assurance of at least official consent to hazard the journey to
Peking, a telegram was sent to the chief of police at Tomsk, to whose care
we had directed our letters, photographic material, and bicycle supplies
to be sent from London in the expectation of being forced to take the
Siberian route. These last could not have been dispensed with much longer,
as our cushion-tires, ball-bearings, and axles were badly worn, while the
rim of one of the rear wheels was broken in eight places for the lack of
spokes. These supplies, however, did not reach us till six weeks after the
date of our telegram, to which a prepaid reply was received, after a
week's delay, asking in advance for the extra postage. This, with that
prepaid from London, amounted to just fifty dollars. The warm weather,
after the extreme cold of a Siberian winter, had caused the tires to
stretch so much beyond their intended size that, on their arrival, they
were almost unfit for use. Some of our photographic material also had been
spoiled through the useless inspection of postal officials.

[Illustration: THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS
FAMILY.]

The delay thus caused was well utilized in fami