We compliment the newly married pair. We return
to our occupation, Ephrinell to his accounts, Mrs. Ephrinell to her
work. Nothing is changed in the train. There are only two more married
people.
Major Noltitz, Pan-Chao and I go out and smoke on one of the platforms,
leaving to their preparations the Caternas, who seem to be having a
sort of rehearsal in their corner. Probably it is the surprise for the
evening.
There is not much variety in the landscape. All along is this
monotonous desert of Gobi with the heights of the Humboldt mountains on
the right reaching on to the ranges of Nan Chan. The stations are few
and far between, and consist merely of an agglomeration of huts, with
the signal cabin standing up among them like a monument. Here the
tender fills up with water and coal. Beyond the Kara Nor, where a few
towns appear, the approach to China Proper, populous and laborious,
becomes more evident.
This part of the desert of Gobi has little resemblance to the regions
of Eastern Turkestan we crossed on leaving Kachgar. These regions are
as new to Pan-Chao and Doctor Tio-King as to us Europeans.
I should say that Faruskiar no longer disdains to mingle in our
conversation.
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