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Page 113
"We endeavored to discourage Major Carstair from undertaking this
adventure. We were greatly concerned about his safety. The
sunken plateau of the Gobi Desert, north of the Shan States, is
exceedingly dangerous for an European, not so much on account of
murderous attacks from the desert people, for this peril we could
prevent; but there is a chill in this sunken plain after sunset
that the native people only can resist. No white man has ever
crossed the low land of the Gobi."
He paused.
"And there is in fact no reason why any one should wish to cross
it. It is absolutely barren. We pointed out all this very
carefully to Major Carstair when we learned what he had in plan,
for as I have said his welfare was very pressingly on our
conscience. We were profoundly puzzled about what he was seeking
in the Gobi. He was not, evidently, intending to plot the region
or to survey any route, or to acquire any scientific data. His
equipment lacked all the implements for such work. It was a long
time before we understood the impulse that was moving Major
Carstair to enter this waste region of the Gobi to the north."
The man stopped, and sat for some moments quite motionless.
"Your father," he went on, "was a distinguished man in one of the
departments of human endeavor which the East has always
neglected; and in it he had what seemed to us incredible skill -
with ease he was able to do things which we considered
impossible. And for this reason the impulse taking him into the
Gobi seemed entirely incredible to us; it seemed entirely
inconsistent with this special ability which we knew the man to
possess; and for a long time we rejected it, believing ourselves
to be somehow misled."
The girl sat straight and silent, in her chair near the brass
fender to the right of the buhl table; the drawing, showing the
white granite shaft, held idly in her fingers; the illuminated
vellum wrapper fallen to the floor.
The man continued speaking slowly.
"When, finally, it was borne in upon us that Major Carstair was
seeking a treasure somewhere on the barren plateau of the Gobi,
we took every measure, consistent with a proper courtesy, to show
him how fantastic this notion was. We had, in fact, to exercise
a certain care lest the very absurdity of the conception appear
too conspicuously in our discourse."
He looked across the table at the girl.
The man's great bald head seemed to sink a little into his
shoulders, as in some relaxation.
"We brought out our maps of the region and showed him the old
routes and trails veining the whole of it. We explained the
topography of this desert plateau; the exact physical character
of its relief. There was hardly a square mile of it that we did
not know in some degree, and of which we did not possess some
fairly accurate data. It was entirely inconceivable that any
object of value could exist in this region without our knowledge
of it."
The man was speaking like one engaged in some extremely delicate
mechanical affair, requiring an accuracy almost painful in its
exactness.
"Then, profoundly puzzled, we endeavored to discover what data
Major Carstair possessed that could in any way encourage him in
this fantastic idea. It was a difficult thing to do, for we held
him in the highest esteem and, outside of this bizarre notion, we
had before us, beyond any question, the evidence of his especial
knowledge; and, as I have said, his, to us, incredible skill."
He paused, as though the careful structure of the long sentence
had fatigued him.
"Major Carstair's explanations were always in the imagery of
romance. He sought `a treasure - a treasure that would destroy a
Kingdom.' And his indicatory data seemed to be the dried blossom
of our desert poppy."
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