In the afternoon the hot winds blew again, and we had a violent dust storm. We did not have the difficulty in procuring food that we had had the day before, and I received also a fair supply of ice. While the hot winds blew, the rim of the glass I drank out of, though containing iced water, was quite hot to the lips. I slept a good deal during the day. At one in the morning I was called, and I dressed by the light of a candle. When I got outside I found the men were loading up. We started about three a.m. His Highness, I found, had gone on. It was excessively dark, and the Armenian and I got off the road and lost our way on the plains. We rode on trusting to our horses, but they were as much at fault as we. We wandered about, down in hollows and up on ridges, for the plain here was undulating, like downs. We were in the neighbourhood of the Abadu Pass--the valley of death. It seemed to me we were getting too far to the left, so we branched to the right. Towards dawn it became very windy and dusty. At four o’clock it became lighter and lighter, and the larks began to sing, and after some trouble we found our way back to the road. To my great relief the sky was cloudy, and the morning comparatively cool. I had tucked a biscuit in the top of my boot, and I munched it with great satisfaction: the Armenian nearly went to sleep on horseback. We camped at Naibabad. Soon after the tents were up it began to rain: it was delicious to hear the water come pattering down. [Sidenote: The Amîr Lost on the Plains.] I found we were not the only ones who had lost their way. At dawn the Amîr himself, with his guard, was found wandering off towards Russia. That day my demoniacal black pony untied his ropes with his fore foot and teeth, and walked off. He was not found till late in the afternoon, when he was brought in looking a miserable wreck. The fourth day was windy and comparatively cool. We started at five a.m. His Highness rode in a palanquin at the head of the army, and I rode level some distance to the right. The mountains lay to the right of us, the south, for we were nearing Tash Kurghàn: to the north was the plain, and the dust was frightful. We arrived at Tash Kurghàn at eight. We went very short stages, for when I had come to Mazar with Jan Mahomed Khan, we did the journey from Tash Kurghàn to Mazar in the day. I sat in the tent of one of the Chamberlains, and the Page boys came and chatted and drank tea with me. They none of them seemed any the worse for the journey. At eleven o’clock I went to my own tent, which was erected on a mound outside the town, near the tent of the British Agent. A good many sick people were brought: some with fever and other illnesses, another with snake bite. The snake had bitten two men, the first one died, but the other recovered. There were a good many surgical cases, too, chiefly from horse kicks: broken legs, internal injuries, and crushed fingers were the commonest. I turned in at eight p.m.