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0684 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 / Page 684 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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434   PREPARATIONS AT KHOTAN   CH. XCI

saved his eyesight,—if ever there had been a chance of recognizing premonitory symptoms which often escape even the practised medical man.

The remainder of this sad story may be briefly told here. By the advice of Mr. Raquette, who all through showed the kindest interest in Ram Singh, I arranged to have the poor sufferer conveyed to Ladak, as soon as the Karakoram route opened, and thence to India. All possible provision was made for his comfort and safety, Daud Beg, a particularly reliable Khotan petty official whom the Naik knew and liked well, being sent off to accompany him, besides two Hindu traders to whose care he was entrusted from Yarkand. Thanks to these arrangements the unfortunate Naik travelled without any mishap or discomfort to Ladak. Thence after a good rest Captain D. G. Oliver, the British Joint Commissioner, saw him safely through to Kashmir.

My old friend Dr. A. Neve, of the Srinagar Mission Hospital, whose fame as a surgeon has spread all through the North-West Himalayas, could only confirm the sad Yarkand verdict. So poor Ram Singh was taken by his brother to his native village near Firozpur in the Punjab. Thence he came to meet me in December when I passed through Lahore. The signs of far-advanced mental decay which I then noticed in the poor fellow made the meeting doubly distressing. The substantial accumulations of the Naik — his emoluments while on duty with me were calculated at a rate amounting to about five times his ordinary pay—were entrusted by me to the safe keeping of his regimental authorities. During my visit to Calcutta I did my utmost to urge in the proper quarters the claims of this faithful companion to special consideration, and some months afterwards I had the relief to know that the Government of India had generously provided for his and his family's needs by the grant of a special pension. He did not live long to benefit by it ; for before the end of 1909 gentle death had relieved him from all further pain, physical and mental. But as a well-deserved act of grace the greater part of the pension was continued by Government as a compassionate allowance to the widow and son.