396 COOKERY UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 



yards from where I lay. This was followed by the occasional 

 fall of a loose pebble on the canvas of my tent, suggesting 

 to my disturbed imagination the idea of impending danger 

 from above, which kept me wakeful until morning. 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 pre- 

 pared 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 Francatelli, and the celerity with 

 which he can in an emergency prepare you an excellent 

 meal, are always marvellous. 



Towards dusk Puddoo, in a state of excitement which was 

 quite unusual to his ordinarily rather phlegmatic tempera- 

 ment, 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 behind 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 im- 

 probable though Puddoo positively declared he could recog- 

 nise in it the same uncanny 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 become 

 imbued with an excited sort of interest in that mysterious 

 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 



