btaining a good bird's-eye view of the country all round.
There was a long snowy range to the north, and directly under it what I
imagined to be a stretch of water, judging from the mist and clouds
forming directly above it and from the grass on the lower slopes of the
mountains.

A hill range stood in my way, just high enough to conceal the lake
behind it. I rejoined my men. Sinking in deep, soft snow, we continued
our march down the other side of the pass. We pitched our tent at a
place about five hundred feet higher than the plain below us, where the
mountain sides were close together and formed a gorge. Notwithstanding
that I was now quite accustomed to great elevations, the ascent to
20,000 feet had caused a certain exhaustion, and I should have been glad
of a good night's rest.

Mansing and Chanden Sing, having eaten some food, slept soundly, but I
felt depressed. I had a peculiar sense of unrest and a presentiment that
some misfortune would come to us during the night.

We were all three under our little tent when I fancied there was some
one outside. I did not know why the thought entered my head, for I heard
no noise, but all the same I felt I must see for myself and satisfy my
curiosity. I peeped out of the tent with my rifle in hand, and saw a
number of black figures cautiously crawling toward us. In a moment I was
outside on my bare feet, running toward them and shouting at the top of
my voice, "_Pila tedan tedang!_" (Look out, look out!) which caused a
stampede among our ghost-like visitors. There were, apparently, many of
them hidden behind rocks, for when the panic seized them the number of
runaways was double or even treble that of the phantoms I had at first
seen approaching. At one moment there seemed to be black ghosts
springing out from everywhere, only, more solid than ghosts, they made a
loud noise with their heavy boots as they ran in confusion down the
steep incline and through the gorge. They turned sharply round the hill
at the bottom and disappeared.

When I crawled inside the tent again Chanden Sing and Mansing, wrapped
head and all in their blankets, were still snoring!

Naturally I passed a sleepless night after that, fearing the unwelcome
visitors might return. We speculated as to how the Tibetans had found
us, and we could not help surmising that our friends of the previous
afternoon must have put them on our track. However, such was the
inconceivable cowardice shown on every occasio