296 COOKING UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 



ing danger from above, which kept me wakeful until morn- 

 ing. It was therefore not surprising, taking all things into 

 consideration, that next day my nervous system was slightly 

 upset, and that I was quite unfit for mountain work. My 

 cook regarding me, I suppose, in the light of an invalid, had 

 considerately prepared a surprise for me in the shape of 

 some delicious jelly, all duly moulded and flavoured, which 

 he had made from tahr-meat. How he had contrived to 

 produce such a delicacy in the little rocky hole he had 

 selected for his kitchen, was a marvel of culinary skill. 

 But the expedients resorted to on a pinch by your Indian 

 Frdncatelli, and the celerity with which he can in an 

 emergency prepare you an excellent meal, are always mar- 

 vellous. 



Towards dusk Puddoo, in a state of excitement which 

 was quite unusual to his ordinarily rather phlegmatic tem- 

 perament, came hurrying to tell me he had just seen what 

 he felt sure was the tahr I had shot at the evening before, 

 moving among the birch-bushes on the same ledge we had 

 at first descried him. Getting out the telescope, there, sure 

 enough, I could see a big black tahr just disappearing be- 

 hind the bushes. As he did not again show himself before 

 dark, Puddoo thought he would be unlikely to move far 

 away during the night. That it could be our old friend, I, 

 however, considered highly improbable though Puddoo 

 positively declared he could recognise in it the same un- 

 canny beast, which had now returned to its favourite haunt 

 to feed there on the birch-sprouts. 



Next morning, as soon as it was light enough to see the 

 opposite crags, all eyes were turned towards them for every 

 one of my followers, even to the cook, seemed to have be- 

 come imbued with an excited sort of interest in that mys- 

 terious old tahr; but not a sign of him could we see. 

 Except for being unable to freely use my left arm, I was 

 now tolerably fit again. I therefore proposed visiting some 

 ground farther up the glen, which Ganna reported as being 



