16 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



marvellous cook, wet through, arrived smiling and 

 at once began his preparations for dinner. Rum 

 John his name is Ramzan Khan, but he says that 

 sahibs always call him Rum John is really a remark- 

 able man : however long or trying the march, or 

 whatever the weather, he came in smiling, set to, 

 did everybody's work and got work out of the coolies 

 as well. He was quite a lesson to us as we groused 

 at the difficulties of the road : and we had been 

 advised to go to Chamba, " as you can get some 

 shooting and also have a perfect loaf if you want." 

 But, as Will remarked, " Half a loaf is better than 

 no bread/' 



Dinner came, and our best chair which had a 

 cushion on it too went down with a crash, and Will 

 sat on the floor. He had to sit on his photograph 

 camera after that. Then we found that the coolie 

 who carried my bed had broken one end off it : it 

 was not very safe, but carried me that night. 

 Another march and yet another and at last we 

 reached our permanent camp, Kukti. We calcu- 

 lated roughly that if we had never unclimbed all 

 the hills that we had climbed, we should then have 

 been at a height of 340,000 feet. But, as a matter 

 of fact, the pocket barometer only registered 7850 

 feet. 



It began to snow, but Rum John still smiled and 

 showed his face at the tent door. His face had been 

 flattened and his nose broken by a kick from a horse 

 when he was a syce he had been everything, I 

 think. He came to say that he had bought a sheep, 

 but that he could not buy any fowls now, as the 



