154 CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



edge, and his eagle eye took in the situation with a 

 hunter's quick perception. 



" We must find my ram ! " I cried, in EngHsh, 

 forgetting that he did not speak it. 



He understood me, for all that. There's a Volapuk 

 for those who go a-shooting. 



" Certainly we will find him," was what his reply 

 meant to me. It was given very confidently, and the 

 speaker was all smiles at my enthusiasm. 



There was very little choice in a way down. One side 

 of the plateau wall slipped away to nothingness in a 

 series of drops until a dried river bed, cutting the heart 

 of the valley, broke the fall, on the other boulders 

 and knife-edged saddle rocks, between which long-fallen 

 snow lay patchily. Without staying to consider — 

 had we remained to think I doubt if we should have 

 ever started — we took on a performance of an advanced 

 acrobatic order. My Russian did his best for me, but 

 it is hardly the moment for playing preux chevalier 

 when poised aloft, klipspringer-wise, on a movable 

 rock which lets you down before you are ready to 

 spring clear. We negotiated the terrible place at last, 

 after I had wrenched my shoulder and the Russian 

 had cut his cheek by a cruel point upon which he im- 

 paled himself after a toss. 



" For my sake," I said, still in English, " let us 

 have a good rest." 



He quite understood and sank down with a sigh of 

 relief. Then we overhauled our rifles — such scratches ! 

 It was pitiable, but then — we were scratched, too. I 

 tried staunching my companion's wounded cheek with 



