e journey through China were discussed among our hosts with frequent
looks of misgiving. Thus, from first to last, every judgment was against
us, and every prediction was of failure, if not of something worse; and
now, as we stole out from the tent by the light of the rising moon, even
the specter-like mountain-peaks around us, like symbols of coming events,
were casting their shadows before. There was something so illusive in the
scene as to make it very impressive. In the morning, early, a score of
horsemen were ready to escort us on the road. At parting they all
dismounted and uttered a prayer to Allah for our safety; and then as we
rode away, drew their fingers across their throats in silence, and waved a
solemn good-by. Such was the almost superstitious fear of these western
nomads for the land which once sent forth a Yengiz Khan along this very
highway.

[Illustration: PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT.]

Down the narrow valley of the Kuitun, which flows into the Ebi-nor,
startling the mountain deer from the brink of the tree-arched rivulet, we
reached a spot which once was the haunt of a band of those border-robbers
about whom we had heard so much from our apprehensive friends. At the base
of a volcano-shaped mountain lay the ruins of their former dens, from
which only a year ago they were wont to sally forth on the passing
caravans. When they were exterminated by the government, the head of their
chief, with its dangling queue, was mounted on a pole near-by, and
preserved in a cage from birds of prey, as a warning to all others who
might aspire to the same notoriety. In this lonely spot we were forced to
spend the night, as here occurred, through the carelessness of the Kuldja
Russian blacksmith, a very serious break in one of our gear wheels. It was
too late in the day to walk back the sixteen miles to the Kirghiz
encampment, and there obtain horses for the remaining fifty-eight miles to
Kuldja, for nowhere else, we concluded, could such a break be mended. Our
sleeping-bags were now put to a severe test between the damp ground and
the heavy mountain dew. The penetrating cold, and the occasional
panther-like cry of some prowling animal, kept us awake the greater part
of the night, awaiting with revolvers in hand some expected attack.

[Illustration: THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY.]

Five days later we had repassed this spot and were toiling over the sand
and saline-covered depression