e camels carried a beautiful new
enamelled iron bedstead. The reader may suppose that, after several
months of sleeping on the ground, I wished it had been mine,--but I did
not. On the contrary, I was particularly struck on that occasion by what
an elaborate, clumsy, useless thing it seemed, although, as bedsteads go,
it was one of the best!

To the south stood a high mountain, very closely resembling in shape the
world-renowned Fujiama of Japan, only this one had a somewhat wider
angle. Beyond the white expanse of salt to the south-east there was low,
flattish country, but to the west, north-west and south-west, rose fairly
high hills. The valley itself in which we were was some two and a half
miles broad, and covered with grey sand.

In the centre of the village in the neighbourhood of which we camped was
a tumbled-down circular tower, and an octangular tower in two tiers, also
partly ruined. The latter stood at the corner of an enclosure which at
one time must have been the beginning of the village wall.

CHAPTER XIV

Suspicious characters--A trap--Held up--No water--The haunt of
robbers--Fierce daily winds--Volcanic formation--A
crater--Wall-like barriers--A salt stream--A caravan from Quetta.

We remained at Sahlabad the whole afternoon, and we were visited in camp
by a number of suspicious-looking people, who were most inquisitive to
know what I possessed and how much money I carried, and other such
pertinent questions which they put to Sadek and my camel man. Also a
peculiar lot of fellows, with very ugly countenances and armed to their
teeth, passed by. They were mounted on fine horses with gaudy saddles,
and on coming suddenly and unexpectedly upon us seemed quite upset.
Instead of salaaming us, as had been usual with the few well-to-do people
we had so far met, they whipped their horses and galloped away.

Sadek said they must be Sawars--mounted soldiers. Abbas Ali said they
were robbers from Afghanistan. We shall see later what they were.

At 6.30 p.m. we left--it was quite dark--and we had gone but two miles
when a distant voice called upon us to stop. By his speech the stranger
seemed very excited when he reached us, and said we must keep the track,
to the left and not follow the one to the right where two trails branched
off. We could not see his face, for he kept some twenty or thirty yards
off, and besides, his face was wrapped all round in the tail of his
turban. We profess