72 IBEX SHOOTING 



down. When Lassoo had gone, and my 

 lunch had been packed in readiness for an 

 early start, and orders given for bread and 

 butter, boiled eggs and tea for 2.30 a.m., 

 we all turned in, so as to be " fit " to- 

 morrow. At 2.30 breakfast *was produced, 

 and then Muksooda came in as usual to 

 put on my grass shoes and putties ; and 

 three o'clock saw us fairly on foot. 



A bitterly cold morning it was, with a 

 piercing wind, and a bright moon, but rather 

 cloudy. We walked fast at first to keep 

 warm ; but after ten minutes' climbing our 

 foreheads were studded with beads of per- 

 spiration, while our moustaches began to 

 hang with icicles. On and on we went, 

 till, after an hour and a half's stiff climb- 

 ing, Lassoo called a halt, for we had got to 

 rather an awkward place, and it was just as 

 well to wait a quarter of an hour until the 

 now dawning light should grow a little 

 stronger. Then on again we went, the stars 

 getting paler in the sky as the day gradually 

 declared itself, until 6.30 saw us up at the 



