stream about noon, he and I thought we 

 would just stop and have a little lunch, 

 dry the shoes, and catch up with the 

 pack train in half an hour. 



From the minute the last horse van- 

 ished out of sight behind a rock, desola- 

 tion settled upon me. That slender line 

 of living beings somewhere on ahead 

 was the only link between us and civi- 

 lisation civilisation which I under- 

 stood, which was human and touchable 

 and the awful vastness of those end- 

 less peaks, wherein lurked a hundred 

 dangers, and which seemed made but to 

 annihilate me. 



Of course, the fire would not burn, 

 and the shoes would not dry. Blondey 

 wandered off and had to be brought 

 back, and it seemed an age before we 

 were again in the saddle, following the 

 trail the animals had made. 



