- After a damp night's bivouac, we awoke to find "A
MIXTURE AS BEFORE" falling - a mixture of rain, sleet, and snow -
anything but promising for the comfort of our day's march.
To avoid
having to wait in the wet for breakfast, we sent on the kitchen and
the cook, and, after some time, followed leisurely ourselves.
An overhanging ledge of rock afforded us some shelter for our meal,
and, after warming and drying ourselves to some extent in this
smoke-blackened and not very commodious little Himalayan hotel, we
again pressed on. This was our third day away from either villages or
regular shelter of any sort, and the retainers were naturally anxious
to reach some settlement where they could, for a time at least,
protect themselves from the rain and snow which still continued to
fall. The consequence was, they pressed on some sixteen miles farther
at a good pace, to reach a little wooden village at the head of the
Wurdwan valley, and we saw nothing of them on the road. On reaching
our halting-place, however, lo and behold, our unfortunate cook was
absent, and nobody seemed to know anything whatever about him! The
cooking things and the larder were all present, and dinner-hour was
at hand; but, alas! the pots and kettles were without a lord, and the
question of where was our dinner began to give way in point of interest
to where was our cook. At the time F. and I left the "cave-hotel,"
the whole of the coolies, Rajoo, the three goats, and the two sheep,
had all gone on ahead, as also the "Invincible One," the sepoy.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 177 of 303
Words from 47928 to 48206
of 82277
