Page:Kennedy, Robert John - A Journey in Khorassan (1890).djvu/73

  being watched by a small crowd of inquisitive soldiers and railway officials. The 'Nachalnik,' or station-master, sent us a civil message, offering us the use of the railway restaurant for a night's lodging, saying that it would be much more comfortable than tents. But we held a different opinion, and courteously declined the well-meant, but untempting proposal. The next morning the first sight which met our eyes was that of a Russian officer who lived in a small house close to which we were encamped, and who, apparently, had not seen our arrival or the pitching of the camp after dark, staring with bewildered astonishment from his garden gate at the extraordinary apparition of a row of English tents guarded by Indian soldiers, which had suddenly and silently arisen in the night. The problem was apparently too complicated for the torpid brain of the astonished Slav to solve unaided, so he eventually turned away in disgust to consult his better-informed and more wide-awake railway friends.

We spent the whole of the day at Dushak within our tents, owing to the oppressive heat,