stream about noon, he and I thought we 
would just stop and have a little lunch, 
dry the shoes, and catch up with the 
pack train in half an hour. 
From the minute the last horse van- 
ished out of sight behind a rock, desola- 
tion settled upon me. That slender line 
of living beings somewhere on ahead 
was the only link between us and civi- 
lisation — civilisation which I under- 
stood, which was human and touchable 
—and the awful vastness of those end- 
less peaks, wherein lurked a hundred 
dangers, and which seemed made but to 
annihilate me. 
Of course, the fire would not burn, 
and the shoes would not dry. Blondey 
wandered off and had to be brought 
back, and it seemed an age before we 
were again in the saddle, following the 
trail the animals had made. 
Os /> 
ae 
= 
icomanczme Ngee 
—— 
