Page:Kennedy, Robert John - A Journey in Khorassan (1890).djvu/34

 proved to be an intractable kicker and was accordingly discarded, much to the relief of Chivers, its destined rider, and another substituted in its place. We reached Deh Mullah, twenty-six miles, in three hours and a half. Here there is a small village, with a ruined fort on a mound, and a large, square, post-station, looking more like a prison than a halting-place for travellers, and at 1.30 we left its dreary walls and continued our journey to Shahrûd, sixteen miles. Our route was north-north-east, by a well-beaten track, over a stony hill skirt; at times it followed the border of the eternal salt waste on our right, and at others skirted the hills on our left. Four miles from Shahrûd we were met by a party of horsemen, servants of the Prince Governor, gholams of the telegraph department, and, conspicuous in his smart and workmanlike uniform, one of General MacLean's orderlies, belonging to the Indian Cavalry Regiment of Guides. They saluted us, and falling in behind we galloped fast into Shahrûd, which is a large, walled town of six hundred and fifty houses, surrounded by gardens and vineyards, lying at