Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1905-08-11
CHAPTER XVIII.


The country is fertile and well cult
waited, growing wheat, maize, RICE bar
ley anu fax, in its eastern districts. Ev-
erywhere are great masses of trees, will
lows, niulberries, poplars. AS far as the
eye can reach are fields under cultivation,
irrigated by numerous canals, also green
fields, in which are fiocks Of sheep, a
country half Normandy, half Provence,
were it not for the mountains of Pamir
on the horizon. But this portion of Kach-
garia was terribly ravaged by war when
its people were struggling for independ-
ence. The land flowed with blood, and
along by the railroad the ground Is dot
tide with tumuli beneath which are
buried the victims Of their patriotism.
But l did not come to Central Asia to
travel as if were in France. Novelty!
Novelty The unforeseen! The appall-
ing
It was without the shadow Of an ac-
cident, and after particularly fine run,
that we entered Yarkand Station at four
o'clock In the afternoon.
A few Chinese passengers alighted at
Yarkand, and gave place to others exact
~ like them-among others score of
coolies-and we started again at 8
o'clock in the evening During the night
we ran the three hundred and fifty kilO-
meters which separate Yarkand from
Kothan.
A visit paid to the front van showed
me that the box was still In the same
place. A certain snoring proved that
Kinko was inside as usual, and sleeping
peacefully. | did not care to wake him,
and | left him to dream of his adorable
Roumanian.
In the morning Popof told me that the
train, which was now travelling about az
fast as an omnibus, had passed Khar-
galik, the junction for the Kilian and
Tong branches. The night had been
cold, for we are still at an altitude Of
1900 meters. Leaving Guma Station, the
line runs due east and west, following
the thirty-seventh parallel, the same
which traverses II in Europe, Seville
Syracuse and Athens
We sighted only one stream of impOr
lance, the Karakash, on which appeared
q few drifting RATS, and files Of horses
and asses at the fords between the pebbly
banks. The railroad crosses it about {
hundred kilOmeters from Khotan, where
we arrived at o'clock in the morning
Two hours to stop, and as the towI
AItty give mt ADINldHlc VI lAG NAtACc VI
China, resolve to take a run through it
AS we were about to board the cal
again. l saw Popof running toward me
shouting:
Monsieur Bombarnacw
"What is the matter, PopOfT
"a telegraph messenger asked me i
there was any one belonging to th'
Twentieth Century on the train
"A telegraph messenger
eyes, and on my replying in the af
firmative, he gave me this telegram fol
for youn
"Give it me! give it me"
seize the telegram, which has beer
waiting for me some days. Is it repl!
to my wire sent from Merry, relative t
the mandarin Yen Lou2
open it. read it, and it falls from
my hand This is what it said:
"Claudius Bombarnac, Correspondent
Twentieth Century, EIhotan, Chimes
Turkestan;
at is not the corpse Of a mandarin
that the train is taking to Pekin, blu
the imperial treasure, value fifteen mill
ions, sent from Persia to China, as an
nounced in the Paris newspapers eigh
days ago; endeavor to be better infOrme
for the future"