48 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



The information as to game turned out to be on a 

 par with that as to our route. Except a couple of 

 gazelle we saw nothing for hours. At last I got a long 

 shot at a nylghau and missed. 



The cup of our misery was, however, not yet full. 

 Nine o'clock came ; then ten ; the sun was high and 

 the heat intense. But our horses never arrived. We 

 had ordered them to skirt the rocky range we had 

 walked across and join us at a certain village. 



At last we started off, fasting and without any 

 supply of drink, to tramp fifteen miles across a roadless 

 plain of deep sand intersected by countless nullahs. 

 The memory of that walk is still to me as a hideous 

 nightmare. After several miles of plodding through 

 the hot sand, with parched throats and aching heads, 

 we arrived at a well. Regardless of the obvious 

 dangers of such water, we drank freely and sluiced our 

 heads and shoulders ; but for this I doubt if we should 

 ever have reached, as we did, a large native town 

 some miles further on. Here we obtained a native 

 vehicle, which conveyed us to a dawk bungalow some 

 eight miles off. At last we were able to drink and 

 sleep, for eating was out of the question. We 

 rested till towards evening, when, having had some 

 food, we started for home still nearly a score of 

 miles away in a pair-horse conveyance we had hired. 



Fate had hitherto done her worst by us, but 

 apparently she now relented. About five miles from 

 home we had to ascend a steepish pass, and got out to 

 stretch our legs. Seeing a large number of partridges 



