336 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



that is to say, that steps are taken to make it so. I 

 then suggested that he might return to the Khengar 

 palace ; but this, he said, his duty to me would not 

 allow of. Thus puzzled between his duties and his 

 fears, the Man of Pleasure had reached an apex of 

 misery unrelieved by any happiness, and I was very 

 glad to leave my rifle with him as a protection from 

 Aghoras, and to give him leave to fire it occasionally. 

 Starting about nine in the morning, with V. V. 

 and two or three of the Bawas, I found that the foot- 

 track, which at first was visible, soon came to an end, 

 and that an unexpected difficulty presented itself. 

 From the high top of the Datatrya it looked easy 

 enough to ascend Kalika ; but on trial I found that 

 its side was thickly covered with huge blocks of rough 

 granite. These blocks were close enough to each 

 other most provokingly so but they were far too 

 large to admit of leaping from one to the other, even 

 had leaping been possible for me. Consequently we 

 had to scramble np one side of each rough block of 

 granite only to scramble down the other, and there 

 found ourselves in immediate contact with a similar 

 exasperating obstacle. This, as I say, was wholly 

 unexpected; and I had also the disadvantage of being 

 lame with rheumatism. By the time we had got 

 about a third of-, the way up the peak I saw quite 

 clearly that though I might contrive to reach the 

 summit by nightfall, the fatigue and suffering in- 

 volved would be so great that there would be nothing 



