od, tearing my
hands and clothes. It grew dusk and then dark in the wood. I felt sleep
gradually creeping over me to rob me of life. For if I had fallen asleep
now, I should never have awakened again. My last struggle was, then,
against drowsiness.

Then the wood suddenly came to an end and the bed of the Khotan river
lay before me. But the bottom was dry, as dry as the sand in the desert!
I was at the summer margin of the river, where water only flows when the
snow melts on the mountains to the south. But I was not going to die on
the bank; I would cross the whole bed before I gave myself up for lost.
The bed was a mile and a quarter broad, a terrible distance for my
strength. I walked slowly with the spade-handle for a stick, crawling
for long distances and often resting and exerting all the force of my
will to resist sleep. Hitherto we had been always making eastwards, but
this night I walked involuntarily south-east. It was as though I were
guided by an unseen hand.

The crescent moon threw a pale light over the dry riverbed. I went
towards the middle and expected to see a silvery streak glisten on a
sheet of water. After an interval, which seemed endless, I descried the
line of wood on the eastern bank. It became more distinct. A fallen
poplar lay projecting over a hollow in the river-bed and on the bank
were close thickets of bushes and reeds. I rested once more. Was it
possible that the whole bed was dry? I felt that all my remaining
strength would be needed to reach the bank. Was I to die of thirst in
the middle of a river-bed? I rose painfully to walk the last bit, but I
had not taken many steps before I stopped short. A duck rose on whirring
wings, I heard the plashing sound of water, and the next moment I stood
at the edge of a fresh, cool, beautiful pool.

I fell on my knees and thanked God for my marvellous escape. Then I took
out my watch and felt my feeble pulse, which beat forty-nine. Then I
drank, slowly at first and then more freely. A deal of water was needed
to slake such a thirst; I drank and drank until at length I was
satisfied. Then I sat down to rest and felt that I was reviving quickly.
After a few minutes my pulse had risen to fifty-six. My hands, which had
just been withered and hard as wood, softened, the blood flowed more
easily through my veins and my forehead became moist. Life seemed more
desirable and delightful than ever. Then I drank again, and thought of
my wonderful deliverance.