reflected and condensed what light there was from the stars. As
the hours of the night went by we gradually left the salt stretch behind
us to the north, and proceeded on the flat for some distance.

In the morning we passed a small village right up on the mountain side,
one mile and a half to the west of our course. We then entered a dry
river-bed between high sand hills, and having marched nineteen hours
continuously camels and men were rather in need of a rest.

At one p.m. on December 1st we pitched our camp in the middle of the
river-bed--80 feet broad here--the only place where we could get a
draught of air,--but the heat was suffocating, the thermometer
registering 112 deg.--the altitude being 5,010 feet.

As we expected to find water of some kind we had omitted to fill up the
skins and load the camels unnecessarily, but, unluckily, there was no
water anywhere at hand. Abbas Ali was sent to the village we had
passed--now some four miles back--to get some, but being too tired to
carry the heavy skin down to us again he entrusted it to a boy, giving
him full directions where our camp was. The boy did not find where we
were, and in the meantime Sadek and I had our throats parched with
thirst. Abbas Ali returned at seven o'clock and had to be despatched back
to the village in search of the lost boy and the water skin. It was ten
o'clock when he returned, and after twenty-eight hours of dryness we had
our first drink of water. It was brackish but it tasted delicious.

We were compelled to remain here for the night. Several caravans passed
through going north, and also a lot of suspicious people, whose manner
was so peculiar that we were compelled to sit up the greater part of the
night and keep watch on my property. Some of the caravan men who had gone
through had warned us that we had encamped in a regular nest of robbers,
and that three men had been robbed and murdered at this spot only a few
days before.

The high sand hills afford excellent hiding places for these gentry. It
appears that the men on horseback whom we had seen at Sahlabad, and who
had bolted on coming suddenly upon us, were the high chief of the robber
band and some of his confederates,--very likely on their way to Birjand
to dispose of booty. Being so near the Afghan border these fellows enjoy
practical safety by merely going from one country into the other to suit
their plans and to evade search parties occasionally sent out for their
capture