nd thence to snipe during
the daylight hours at any warriors who showed themselves above the walls
of the jong. Hadow was very patient and persistent with his gun, and
quickly made it clear to the Tibetans that, if we were obliged to keep
under cover, so were they. But our fire from the post was probably as
ineffective as that of the enemy from the jong, for the Tibetans build
walls with extraordinary rapidity. Working mostly at night in order to
avoid the malignant Maxim, the enemy within a few days almost altered
the face of the jong. New walls, traverses, and covered ways seemed to
spring up with the rapidity of mushrooms.

Our life during the siege, if so the bombardment can be called, was
hardly as unpleasant as people might imagine. To begin with, we were
never short of food--that is to say, of Tibetan barley and meat. The
commissariat stock of tea--a necessity in Tibet--also never gave out.
From time to time also convoys and parcel-posts with little luxuries
came through. Again, the longest period for which we were without a
letter-post was eight days. Socially, the relations of the officers with
one another and with the members of the Commission were most harmonious.
I make a point of mentioning this fact, because all those who have had
any experience of sieges, or of similar conditions where small
communities are shut up together in circumstances of hardship and
danger, know how apt the temper is to get on edge, how often small
differences are likely to give rise to bitter animosities. But we had in
the Gyantse garrison men of such vast experience and geniality as
Colonel Brander, of such high culture and attainment as Colonel
Younghusband, Captain O'Connor, and Mr. Perceval Landon--the
correspondent of _The Times_; men whose spirits never failed, and who
found humour in everything, such as Major Row, Captain Luke, Captain
Coleridge, Lieutenant Franklin. Amongst the besieged was Colonel
Waddell, I.M.S., an Orientalist and Sinologist of European fame. Hence,
in some of its aspects the Gyantse siege was almost a delightful
episode. In the later days, when all the outpost fighting occurred, our
spirits were somewhat damped, for we had to mourn brave men killed and
sympathize with others dangerously wounded.

Of course, one of the first questions for consideration when the Karo la
column returned to Gyantse was whether the enemy could or could not be
turned out of the jong. To make a frontal attack on the frowning