VI 



IN THE HIMALAYAS 



MY brother Ned (Col. E. P. Smith, R.A., who 

 was killed in Gallipoli) and I went for some 

 months into the mountains, starting through 

 Kashmir and going on eventually up the Wardwan 

 nullah to Suru and Zanskar. It was really a wonder 

 that we ever met. We had settled to go shooting 

 somewhere together, either in Kashmir or Mysore 

 places a long way apart ! and he was stationed up 

 North and my husband and I in Dharwar. He was 

 always lazy about letter-writing and left all arrange- 

 ments on this occasion till the last minute. I knew 

 when his leave began and the day I was to set off 

 for somewhere to join him. The day before I started 

 Ned sent this rather ambiguous telegram : " You 

 tak the high road and 111 tak the low road and 111 

 be in Scotland afore ye," but he never said which 

 Scotland ! However, I started all the same, not 

 knowing in which direction he might be travelling; 

 but we did meet by some extraordinary chance, and 

 I found him waiting for me on the platform at Rawal 

 Pindi, and he was there first ! Though this was 

 lucky, misfortune dogged our steps in other ways. 

 We were prevented going to places we had intended 

 by falls of snow that had, that year, been very much 

 heavier than usual, and later in the season as well. 



G 81 



