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not learned to gage the speed of the traveling machine; so he was

completely mystified as to his whereabouts.

Presently a village having many queer spires and minarets whisked by

him like a flash. Rob became worried, and resolved to slow up at the

next sign of habitation.

This was a good resolution, but Turkestan is so thinly settled that before

the boy could plan out a course of action he had passed the barren

mountain range of Thian-Shan as nimbly as an acrobat leaps a jumping-

bar.

This won't do at all!" he exclaimed, earnestly. "The traveling machine

seems to be running away with me, and I'm missing no end of sights by

scooting along up here in the clouds."

He turned the indicator to zero, and was relieved to find it obey with

customary quickness. In a few moments he had slowed up and stopped,

when he found himself suspended above another stretch of sandy plain.

Being too high to see the surface of the plain distinctly he dropped down

a few hundred feet to a lower level, where he discovered he was

surrounded by billows of sand as far as his eye could reach.

It's a desert, all right," was his comment; "perhaps old Sahara herself."

He started the machine again towards the east, and at a more moderate

rate of speed skimmed over the surface of the desert. Before long he

noticed a dark spot ahead of him which proved to be a large body of

fierce looking men, riding upon dromedaries and slender, spirited horses

and armed with long rifles and crookedly shaped simitars.

Those fellows seem to be looking for trouble," remarked the boy, as he

glided over them, "and it wouldn't be exactly healthy for an enemy to get

in their way. But I haven't time to stop, so I'm not likely to get mixed up

in any rumpus with them."

However, the armed caravan was scarcely out of sight before Rob

discovered he was approaching a rich, wooded oasis of the desert, in the

midst of which was built the walled city of Yarkand. Not that he had ever

heard of the place, or knew its name; for few Europeans and only one

American traveler had ever visited it. But he guessed it was a city of

some importance from its size and beauty, and resolved to make a stop

there.

The Master Key