The chief looked at the boys while they were talking, with a certain amount of suspicion, as though he thought they might be plotting something revolutionary, then he asked another question, of which Sidney caught the word for “horses.” “He’s asking if we have no horses,” said Sidney, and he related how their horses had been taken, giving it all in English except the words “government,” “army,” and “horses,” of which he knew the Russian equivalents. The chief appeared to grasp his meaning without any difficulty, and to be rather amused by it, for he made a remark to the surrounding men, who all laughed, and the talking began afresh. “They think it’s a great joke,” growled Raymond, “that our horses were stolen. Maybe they’ll lose some if they don’t look out.” “I expect they have lost some already,” said Sidney, “and that is the reason they are so interested.” “Don’t you suppose, Sid, that we can buy horses here?” “I doubt it, and I don’t believe we had better buy more horses even if we can get them, for we should probably lose them in the same way.” “But I don’t see how we are going to cross that range on foot, Sid. If we only had a pack-mule now,--old Tuerto, for instance,--we should get along fine.” “What seems the worst to me,” said Sidney, “is the time it will take.” “Yes, that will be bad; but I must say I don’t hanker after climbing those mountains on foot, even if we had all the time there is.” “Well, I’ll ask about horses, if I can make them understand.” Sidney took some gold out of his pocket and showed it to the chief, using the Russian word for “horses” and holding up two fingers. The man shook his head and made a vigorous statement in which occurred the familiar Russian words for “government” and “army.” “I guess he is saying that the Government has taken their horses too, but I did a foolish thing to show that money.” “There are certainly some villainous faces in the crowd,” said Raymond. “I think we had better buy guns.” “I don’t know but you are right, Ray. Suppose we buy one gun; I guess we can spare money for that.” “We can better spare money for that than to lose all we have.” “Then we’d better go out and find one now, before it gets dark.” The streets of Timour Khan Shoura were so narrow and dark that the boys feared they had waited too long as it was. They found, however, to their great surprise, that the bazaars of the town were well stocked with excellent guns, though their pattern was somewhat Oriental. They did not know until afterward that many of the weapons were manufactured there. After a short search they purchased a five-shot, .38 caliber revolver with a silver-trimmed stock. The decorative part of the gun they would have been willing to omit in order to save expense, but they could find none simpler that satisfied Raymond. With the purchase of a box of cartridges, five of which went immediately into the cylinder of the new gun, Raymond said he felt more like himself.