Francis Worcester Doughty

“ Maurice said to Ah Schow. “If they’ve got some great man in that travelling house, find out who he is so that we may do the honors of the inn in proper shape.”
This started Ah Schow off to mingle with the crowd, but before he returned with the desired information, the mystery had in part solved itself.
Six long-haired men were crowding around the litter as soon as the bearers let it down.
It was a simple affair—just a sort of hand barrow with four upright poles over which rush mats were thrown.
“Thunder and Mars! Why don’t the fellow get out?” exclaimed Maurice. ”

“ It’s just as you say, he must be frozen. Merciful heaven! That is what the fellow meant by a guest who would not crowd us off the k’ang. They are bringing us a corpse!”
We pushed forward, elbowed by the camel drivers who seemed just as curious as ourselves.
Between them the six men who had pressed around the litter were carrying a human form, so enveloped in sheep-skins that we could not tell at first whether it was man or woman. Only the face was exposed and as yet we were not near enough to see that.
Slowly they walked toward the inn door, the camel drivers moving aside as they advanced. ”

“ You have brought this on yourself.”
“By gracious, he has you there, Doctor!” put in Maurice, rousing himself from the reverie into which he had fallen.
“Not that I blame you,” continued Mr. Mirrikh; “under similar circumstances no doubt I would have done just as you did; but when you utterly discredit my statements——”
“Stuff and nonsense! Do you expect a man of my intelligence to believe that a human body can be transported from one planet to another?” ”

“ Hurry, Ah Schow, and put more argols under the k’ang.”
Now the k’ang in a Thibetan or Tartar inn, is of such huge import that I must stop to tell what it is like.
Inns, in the Thibetan mountains, let it be understood, are for the most part mere shelters, maintained for the accomodation of travellers, who are expected to provide for themselves. Indeed the traveller may consider it luck even to find a shelter; he must expect nothing else, or certain disappointment awaits him. ”

“ We could not see the faces of the riders, however, and the light was too uncertain to enable us to tell by their costumes whether they were Thibetans, or Chinese traders from Bootan or Napaul.
To us they looked like so many sheep walking on their hind legs, which is not at all strange when you come to consider that they all wore huge sheepskin coats and caps with the wool turned out.
“Come! come! We must attend to the fire!” cried Maurice suddenly. “Poor wretches! They will be fairly frozen by the time they get here. ”

“ Here you have boldly asserted something which to our minds seems an utter impossibility; that you are an inhabitant of another planet; not satisfied with this, you tell us that you propose to return to the earth from whence you came, and then cap the climax by offering to take any one of us along.”
We were still sitting together around the fire in the old stone tower when this conversation took place, for you may rest assured that after the astonishing statement made by Mr. Mirrikh with which the last chapter closed, we had no notion of letting him go until he had fully explained. ”

“ I deserve it all.”
“Keep up nothing,” grumbled the Doctor. “I wish that rascal, Ah Schow, would get back with the argols to start up this fire; we’ll be sure to see the last of it in twenty minutes if he don’t.”
“One wouldn’t think so from the way the k’ang feels now,” laughed Maurice, jumping upon it, and sitting there with his feet dangling down while he lit the pipe. “The temperature is quite Cambodian beneath and decidedly Thibetan above. What we need is equalization. How’s that, Doctor? ”

“ It was the “sok! sok!” of the camel driver. A sound no one is likely to forget in a hurry who has had the ill-fortune to travel in Thibet.
Maurice leaped off the k’ang and seized his rifle, which stood leaning against the unplastered wall of the inn. As for the Doctor, he displayed the effects of his American training by the quick motion his hand made toward his hip pocket. ”

“ If a fakir can bring a dog down from a clear sky out of nothingness, or can climb a ladder held upright beneath the vault of heaven, and pulling it up after him, vanish ladder and all, why that which I claim for my man is but baby play. ”

“ When the fire is built under the k’ang, the planks above are soon heated and will remain reasonably warm for quite a length of time. Here you sit by day and sleep by night, and if you can accustom yourself to roasting on one side and freezing on the other, you will soon learn, as we did, to make yourself very comfortable on the k’ang. ”

“ Bent upon his benevolent intentions, Maurice now lent his assistance to Ah Schow and the argols were soon gathered up and thrown under the k’ang. Meanwhile I had shut the door and the Doctor returned to his comfortable position in the warmest corner.
“May as well secure a seat while it’s possible,” he said. “Just you wait till these people come up and then see how comfortable we’ll be? I tell you there’s no such thing as sleep to-night.”
They were coming. The shouts of the camel drivers grew louder. ”

“ THREE TRAVELERS IN THIBET.
“Shut the door!”
No wonder the Doctor said it.
The man who can leave the door open when the thermometer stands at 10 degrees Fah. below zero, is lacking in consideration for his fellow man, to say the least.
“Shut the door!” roared the Doctor, a second time. “Shut the door!”
“Maurice! Maurice! Rouse yourself old man!” I called, adding my voice to that of the Rev. Miles Philpot, which needed no addition, being a host in itself. ”

“ If he does, and he has failed to provide himself with it beforehand, then he will be pretty apt to fare badly, for money here goes for nothing. Even if the inn is in charge of the family whose business it is to keep it clean, they will have nothing to sell, but rather will try to buy from you. ”