306 THE IMAGE OF WAE 



Meanwhile starvation stared us in the face, for all 

 our stores, and even our wine, were run out. Our 

 tea, too, having been only packed in paper, had lost 

 its savour, and even after the desperate expedient of 

 boiling it for a quarter of an hour, it only tasted of 

 tin cup and condensed milk. That day we had some 

 salt ibex, which tasted like indiarubber, and still more 

 briny olives, which the shepherds brought us. Fowls 

 they refused us, as they were required for breeding 

 purposes ; but we were desperate and ordered a raid. 

 Our men brought back two antediluvian specimens, 

 for which we afterwards paid famine prices. 



Christmas Day was nearly as bad as the day pre- 

 vious, v., who had killed two lions on this anni- 

 versary the year before, cursed his luck and refused 

 to go out. The w^ind was bitter, and it snowed most 

 of the day. I got as far as the monastery, and stayed 

 there till I was thoroughly chilled waiting for Dimitri. 

 At last I started off, thinking he would follow. Of 

 course he never did, and never had had any intention 

 of facing the cold. 



I worked along the path by the big ravine, seeing 

 nothing but a hobby and a pretty little rock-creeper, 

 grey in front and black behind. About one o'clock I 

 ensconced myself among some bushes to eat my frugal 

 lunch. Till then I had not realised the extent of the 

 cold, but in about a quarter of an hour I found I 

 could stand it no longer, and hurried on. It took 

 me quite twenty minutes' sharp climbing before the 

 circulation in my hands was sufficiently restored to 

 have enabled me to use my trigger-finger. However, 

 the occasion did not arise, and I made my way on- 

 wards over the frozen ground, where the snow now lay 

 pretty thickly in sheltered places, to the eastern cliffs. 



