hills
driving two loose horses before them--we found afterwards that one was
my favourite white horse, the other Shagdur's yellow one. Shagdur sent a
bullet after the scoundrels, but it only hastened their pace.

It was still dark, but there was no more sleep for us. We settled
ourselves round a small blaze, boiled rice and tea, and lighted our
pipes. When the sun rose we were ready to go forward. First we examined
the tracks of the thieves and found that they had come down on us with
the wind, and had thus eluded the watchfulness of the dogs. One of the
men had crept along a rain furrow right among the grazing horses, and,
jumping up, had frightened the best two off to leeward. There a mounted
Tibetan had taken them in hand and chased them on in front of him. The
third had waited with his comrade's horse and his own, and then he also
had made off. They had no doubt been watching us all day. Perhaps they
already knew that we came from my headquarters, and they might even send
a warning to Lhasa.

Oerdek was beside himself with fright at having to make the two days'
journey back on foot and quite alone. We heard afterwards that he did
not dare to go back on our trail, but sneaked like a wild cat along all
the furrows, longing for night; but when darkness came he was still more
terrified and thought that every stone was a lurking villain. A couple
of wild asses nearly frightened him out of his senses, and made him
scuttle like a hedgehog into a ravine. When he arrived in the darkness
of night at the main camp, the night watchman took him for a stranger
and raised his gun. But Oerdek shouted and waved his arms, and when he
got to his tent he lay down and slept heavily for two whole days.

We three pilgrims rode on south-eastwards, and pitched our tent on open
ground by a brook twenty-five miles farther on. Our positions were now
reversed; Shagdur was the important man and I was only a mule-driver.
With the Cossacks I always spoke Russian, but now no language must be
used but Mongolian, which the Lama had been teaching me for a long time
previously. After dinner I slept till eight o'clock in the evening, and
when I awoke I found my two comrades in a state of the greatest anxiety,
for they had seen three Tibetan horsemen spying upon us from a long
distance. We must therefore expect fresh trouble at any moment.

The night was divided into three watches, from nine o'clock to midnight,
midnight to three o'clock, and three o'