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14. Turk and Tatar
The Tatars had arrived, swiftly and noiselessly, and a dozen of the
warriors, still mounted, were surrounding him.
His helpless condition aroused their curiosity, and while some of them
hastily cut away his bonds and raised him to his feet, other plied him
with questions in their own language. Rob shook his head to indicate
that he could not understand; so they led him to the chief--an immense,
bearded representative of the tribe of Kara-Khitai, the terrible and
relentless Black Tatars of Thibet. The huge frame of this fellow was
clothed in flowing robes of cloth-of-gold, braided with jewels, and he sat
majestically upon the back of a jet-black camel.
Under ordinary circumstances the stern features and flashing black eyes
of this redoubtable warrior would have struck a chill of fear to the boy's
heart; but now under the influence of the crushing misfortunes he had
experienced, he was able to gaze with indifference upon the terrible
visage of the desert chief.
The Tatar seemed not to consider Rob an enemy. Instead, he looked
upon him as an ally, since the Turks had bound and robbed him.
Finding it impossible to converse with the chief, Rob took refuge in the
sign language. He turned his pockets wrong side out, showed the red
welts left upon his wrists by the tight cord, and then shook his fists
angrily in the direction of the town.
In return the Tatar nodded gravely and issued an order to his men.
By this time the warriors were busily pitching tents before the walls of
Yarkand and making preparations for a formal siege. In obedience to the
chieftain's orders, Rob was given a place within one of the tents nearest
the wall and supplied with a brace of brass-mounted pistols and a dagger
with a sharp, zigzag edge. These were evidently to assist the boy in
fighting the Turks, and he was well pleased to have them. His spirits
rose considerably when he found he had fallen among friends, although
most of his new comrades had such evil faces that it was unnecessary to
put on the Character Markers to judge their natures with a fair degree of
accuracy.
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