next morning
our guard prepared to start us again towards the Lumpiya. Then we three
semi-corpses collected what little strength remained in us, and suddenly
made an attack on them with stones; whereupon, incredible as it may seem,
our cowardly guard turned tail and bolted! We went on in the direction of
Taklakot, followed at a distance by these ruffians, who were entreating
us to make no further resistance and to go with them where they wanted us
to go. If we did not, they said, they would all have their heads cut off.
We refused to listen to them, and kept them away by throwing stones at
them.

[Illustration: SHEEP LOADS FOR BORAX AND GRAIN]

We had gone but a few miles when we met with a large force of soldiers
and Lamas, despatched by the Jong Pen to prepare for our death. Unarmed,
wounded, starved and exhausted as we were, it was useless attempting to
fight against such odds. As it was, when they saw we were at liberty,
they made ready to fire on us.

The Jong Pen's Chief Minister, a man called Lapsang, and the Jong Pen's
Private Secretary, were at the head of this party. I went to shake hands
with them and held a long and stormy palaver, but they kept firm and
insisted on our turning away from the frontier, now that we were almost
within a stone's-throw of it, and we must perforce proceed by the high
Lumpiya Pass. Those were the Jong Pen's orders, and they, as well as I,
must obey them. They would not give us or sell us either animals or
clothes which even the small sum of money I had on me would have been
sufficient to buy; and they would not provide us with an ounce of food.
We emphatically protested, and said we preferred to die where we were. We
asked them to kill us then and there, for we would not budge an inch
westwards.

Lapsang and the Jong Pen's Private Secretary now cunningly suggested that
I should give them in writing the names of the Shokas who had
accompanied me to Tibet, probably with the object of confiscating their
land and goods. As I said I could not write Tibetan or Hindustani, they
requested me to do it in English. This I did, but substituting for the
names of my men and my signature sarcastic remarks, which must have
caused the Tibetans some surprise when they had the document translated.

As, however, they refused to kill us there and then, and as Lapsang
showed us great politeness and asked us to go by the Lumpiya Pass as a
personal favour to him, I reluctantly decided to accept thei