104 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



To stay in a place where Platon had found 

 friends, and where I could get no hunters and 

 no dogs, was out of the question ; so by dint 

 of never losing sight of him for a moment, I 

 made the unwillins; Platon obtain horses 

 before nightfall, and long ere the garrulous 

 inhabitants had asked us half the questions 

 they had to ask we were en route for Gebi. 



Such a rare night as that on which we rode 

 from Glola to Gebi is enough to soothe even 

 spirits unhinged by haggling with Caucasian 

 horseboys ; and though the road was in places 

 dangerously bad, and a puff of hot air like a 

 furnace blast came from time to time from the 

 baked hillsides, marring the evening cool, we 

 still rode on happy through a perfect dream 

 of beauty. For the most part all was dark 

 and wild, like a realisation of one of Dora's pic- 

 tures ; but now and again the moon would seem 

 to sail up from behind some lower peak than 

 usual, and throw flashes of weird, uncertain 



