d to us, and unless we resorted to force, I felt we would
never escape at all.

The Gyanema men asked me whether I would lead them in case of a fight
with the Jong Pen's soldiers. Though not overconfident in their courage,
I accepted the post of general-in-chief _pro tem._, Chanden Sing and
Mansing being elected there and then as my aides-de-camp. We spent the
greater part of the night in arranging our plan of attack on the Jong
Pen's troops. When all was properly settled, the Tibetans, to show their
gratitude, brought me a leg of mutton, some _tsamba_, and two bricks of
tea.

Morning came. I was given a beautiful pony to ride. Chanden Sing and
Mansing were mounted on equally handsome animals. Then followed my
Tibetan troops--a grand cavalcade. We started gayly toward Taklakot. We
had been informed that the Jong Pen was concentrating his men at a
certain point on the road, where he intended to bar our way. It was this
point that we must force. My Tibetans said that they hated the Jong
Pen's men, and swore they would slaughter them all if they dared to
stand before us and prevent our passage.

"But they are such cowards," declared one of the Tibetan officers, "they
will run away."

All this talk suddenly stopped when we heard the distant tinkling of our
enemies' horse-bells. I encouraged my men as best I could, but a panic
began to spread among them. The Jong Pen's men came in sight. I
witnessed the strange spectacle of two armies face to face, each in
mortal terror of the other.

Notwithstanding my remonstrances, matchlocks and swords were deposited
on the ground with anxious eagerness by both parties, in order to show
that only peaceful intentions prevailed. Then a conference was held, in
which everybody seemed ready to oblige everybody else except me.

While this was still proceeding, a horseman arrived with a message from
the Jong Pen, and at last, to everybody's satisfaction, permission was
granted for us to proceed into Taklakot.

My army retraced its steps toward the north-west. Deposed from the high
military post, which I had occupied only for a few hours, I became again
a private individual and a prisoner. A large escort took us along a
rocky road following the course of the Gakkon River along barren cliffs.
We passed hundreds of _choktens_, large and small, mostly painted red,
and _mani_ walls. Then, having descended by a precipitous track on
whitish clay-soil, we reached a thickly inhabited district, w