296 



COOKING UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 



ing danger from above, wliich kept me wakeful until morn-l 

 ing. It was therefore not surprising, taking all tilings int 

 consideration, that next day my nervous system was slighth 

 upset, and that I was quite unfit for mountain work. M^ 

 cook regarding me, I suppose, in the light of an invalid, hac 

 considerately prepared a surprise for me in the shape o^ 

 some delicious jelly, all duly moulded and flavoured, whichl 

 he had made from tahr-meat. How he had contrived to- 

 produce such a delicacy in the little rocky hole he had 

 selected for his kitchen, was a marvel of culinary skill. 

 But the expedients resorted to on a pinch by your Indian 

 Francatelli, and the celerity with which he can in an 

 emergency prepare you an excellent meal, are always mar- 

 vellous. 



Towards dusk Puddoo, in a state of excitement which 

 was quite unusual to his ordinarily rather phlegmatic tem- 

 perament, came hurrying to tell me he had just seen what 

 he felt sure was the tahr I had shot at the evening before,^ 

 moving among the birch-bushes on the same ledge we hac 

 at first descried him. Getting out the telescope, there, sui 

 enough, I could see a big black tahr just disappearing he* 

 hind the bushes. As he did not again show himself before 

 dark, Puddoo thought he would be unlikely to move fai 

 away during the night. That it could be our old friend, Ij 

 however, considered highly improbable — though Puddo( 

 positively declared he could recognise in it the same un- 

 canny beast, which had now returned to its favourite hauni 

 to feed there on the birch-sprouts. 



Next morning, as soon as it was light enough to see the 

 opposite crags, all eyes were turned towards them — for every! 

 one of my followers, even to the cook, seemed to have be-l 

 come imbued with an excited sort of interest in that mys-l 

 terious old tahr; but not a sign of him could we see.] 

 Except for being unable to freely use my left arm, I was 

 now tolerably fit again. I therefore proposed visiting some] 

 ground farther up the glen, which Ganna reported as bein| 



