all their might, and succeeded
in grabbing again my arms, legs, and head. Exhausted as I was, they
knocked me down three more times, but each time I regained my feet. I
fought to the bitter end with my fists, feet, head, and teeth. Each time
I got one hand or leg free from their clutches, I hit right and left at
any part where I could disable my opponents. Their timidity, even when
in such overwhelming numbers, was indeed beyond description. It was
entirely due to it, and not to my strength, for I had hardly any left,
that I was able to hold my own against them for some twenty minutes. My
clothes were torn in the fight. Long ropes were thrown at me from every
side. I became so entangled in them that my movements were impeded. One
rope which they flung and successfully twisted round my neck completed
their victory. They pulled hard at it from the two ends, and while I
panted and gasped with the exertion of fighting, they tugged and tugged
in order to strangle me. I felt as if my eyes would shoot out of my
head. I was suffocating. My sight became dim. I was in their power.
Dragged down to the ground, they stamped, and kicked, and trampled upon
me with their heavy nailed boots until I was stunned. Then they tied my
wrists tightly behind my back; they bound my elbows, my chest, my neck,
and my ankles. I was a prisoner!

[Illustration: PURCHASING PONIES]

They lifted me and made me stand up. Brave Chanden Sing had been
struggling with all his might against fifteen or twenty foes, and had
disabled several of them. He had been pounced upon at the same moment
that I was, and had fought gallantly until, like myself, he had been
entangled, thrown down, and secured with ropes. During my struggle I
heard him call out repeatedly: "_Banduk, banduk, Mansing; jaldi,
banduk!_" (Rifle, rifle, Mansing; quick, my rifle!) but, alas, poor
Mansing the leper, the weak and jaded coolie, had been sprung upon by
four powerful Tibetans, who held him pinned to the ground as if he had
been the fiercest of bandits. Mansing was a philosopher. He had saved
himself the trouble of even offering a resistance; but he, too, was
ill-treated, beaten, and tightly bound. At the beginning of the fight a
shrill whistle had brought up four hundred[10] armed soldiers who had
lain in ambush round us, concealed behind the innumerable sand-hills
and in the depressions in the ground. They took up a position round us
and covered us with their matchlocks.

All was now