discussion followed as to who should
keep the key of my handcuffs, and eventually it was handed over to one of
the officers, who mounted his pony and rode away at a great rate in the
direction of Lhassa.

[Illustration: PADLOCK AND KEY]

[34] A form of torture in which, after placing the legs upon two parallel
logs of wood, a heavy blow is given with a mallet, fracturing both legs.

CHAPTER LXXXII

A pitiful scene--A struggle to get to Chanden Sing--Brutally
treated--A torturing saddle--Across country at a gallop--A
spirited pony--Sand deposits and hills--Speculation--More
horsemen coming towards us.

JUST then I heard the voice of my servant Chanden Sing calling to me in a
weak agonised tone:

"_Hazur, Hazur, hum murgiaega!_" ("Sir, sir, I am dying!") and, turning
my head in the direction from which these painful sounds came, I
perceived my faithful bearer with his hands bound behind his back,
dragging himself on his stomach towards the door of one of the other
rooms of the mud-house. His poor face was hardly recognisable, it bore
the traces of such awful suffering.

I could stand no more. Pushing my guards aside with my shoulders, I
endeavoured to get to the poor wretch, and had nearly reached him when
the soldiers who stood by sprang upon me, grappling me, and lifting me
bodily off my feet. They threw me on the back of a pony.

Though I now feared the worst, I tried to encourage my brave servant by
shouting to him that I was being taken to Taklakot, and that he would be
brought after me the following day. He had exhausted his last atom of
strength in creeping to the door. He was roughly seized, and brutally
hurled back into the room of the mud-house, so that we could not exchange
a word more. Mansing, the coolie, was placed, with his arms pinioned, on
a bare-backed pony. The saddle of the pony I had been thrown upon is
worthy of description. It was in reality the wooden frame of a very
high-backed saddle, from the back of which some five or six sharp iron
spikes stuck out horizontally. As I sat on this implement of torture, the
spikes caught me in the small of my back.

My guard having been augmented by twenty or thirty mounted men with
muskets and swords, we set off at a furious pace. A horseman riding in
front of me led my pony by means of a cord, as my hands were manacled
behind my back; and thus we travelled across country for miles.

[Illustration: "SIR, SIR, I AM DYING