2o6 The Hunting Wasps 



drizzling mist, which prevented us from seeing 

 two yards in front of us. By an unfortunate 

 coincidence, one of us, my good friend Delacour, 

 had strayed aside in search of Euphorbia saxi- 

 talis, one of the botanical curiosities of these 

 heights. Making a speaking-trumpet of our 

 hands, we shouted as one man. No answer 

 came. Our voices were lost in the flaky thick- 

 ness and the dull sound of the whirling mist. 

 As the wanderer could not hear us, we had to 

 look for him. In the darkness it was impossible 

 to see one another at a distance of two or three 

 yards ; and I was the only one of the seven to 

 know the locality. So that nobody might be 

 left in the lurch, we took hands and I placed 

 myself at the head of the chain. For some 

 minutes we played a regular game of blind- 

 man's-buff, leading to nothing. No doubt, 

 on seeing the clouds drift up, Delacour, who 

 knew the Ventoux, had taken advantage of the 

 last gleams of light to hasten to the shelter of 

 the Jas. We resolved to make for it ourselves 

 as quickly as possible, for already our clothes 

 were streaming with rain inside as well as out. 

 Our white-duck trousers were sticking to us like 

 a second skin. 



A serious difficulty arose : the hurrying 

 backwards and forwards, the twisting and 

 turning, while we looked about us, had reduced 



