124 CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



pelting down and a murmur of thunder in the air. 

 Darkness fell suddenly. One instant it was light 

 enough to see, the next a pall-like gloom hid us from 

 each other, and nothing but the scrunch of hoofs on 

 the stones told us of the exact proximity of the fol- 

 lowing horse in the file. Each of us was a peram- 

 bulating Whiteley, and from his Universal Provider 

 Ali detached a lantern, which he lighted and gave to 

 our herdsman to carry ahead of us. Pursuing this 

 flickering will-o'-the-wisp, we stumbled on until a small 

 square two-storied stone house faced us, all alone, dark 

 and dreary. 



A tap at the door, and out popped a gigantic 

 Lesghian, with the promptitude of a penny-in-the-slot 

 machine. High above his head he held a flaming torch, 

 and the lurid glare gave the man's eagle features a wild 

 rough beauty almost unearthly. He stood on the 

 topmost step of a deeply excavated evil-smelling 

 stable, which constituted the cavernous ground-floor 

 of the domicile, and through the Augean depths we 

 were expected to wade to a ladder, by which we gained 

 the comparative comfort of an apartment above, into 

 which we bobbed up, suddenly, rather like seals in 

 the ice. 



In the grimy recesses of this place we arranged to 

 pass the night, a very mixed entertainment, as, unless we 

 allowed Kenneth a corner, he would have to repose on 

 the road in the drenching downpour, or sample the 

 unutterable horrors of the regions below. One gets 

 serenely callous to conventionalities in the Caucasus. 

 And it must not be forgotten that, as a general rule. 



