352 THE RAINS. 



on which to lay it ; and, even had we found a dry 

 spot, the blinding sheets of rain would have washed 

 it away as soon as laid. No fire meant very little 

 food, as none of us could eat raw wild swine's 

 flesh, and we had very little else. 



In the night a lot of wolves descended from 

 the mountains, and, attracted by the smell of our 

 beech-tree larder, came right into the camp, their 

 weird howlings, as they answered one another from 

 point to point, sounding very eerie in the storm. 

 Worse than that, Niko, who had been hunted by 

 wolves only a year before, within a mile or two of 

 this spot, got extremely nervous, and, worse still, 

 made the other men so. This, they said, was the 

 month in which wolves were most to be dreaded ; 

 and, in a pack, with no fire to scare them, there 

 was no certainty that they might not invade our 

 tent during the night-watches. 



To get back to the telegraphist's hut was our 

 first idea ; though, remembering its fragile nature, 

 I had my doubts whether there was much better 

 accommodation there than with us. This, how- 

 ever, was rendered impossible. During the night 

 the mountain streams had risen, and a man who had 

 attempted to cross them in the evening was all but 

 drowned before he could get back to shore. At 

 the outset of the storm our Cossack, with the 

 horses, had deserted and left us to our fate, so that 

 there was nothing for it but to sit perched like 



