134 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



bad wind, but ten minutes (or it ma}^ have 

 been only five) of such a scamper simply 

 leaves me breathless. Unable to make myself 

 understood I clutch at my guide's skirts 

 and sign to him to go slower. The look of 

 indignant surprise and pity he bestows on me 

 is rather worse than a knock-down blow, but 

 thank heaven he does go a trifle slower for a 

 while. To him, knowing every stone on the 

 hillside, it is all very well, but for me I have 

 been putting my feet down recklessly and in 

 ignorance ever since I started. Poor Frank 

 put his arm out on the way to the eyrie, 

 though thanks to luck and experience he got 

 it in again almost at once, and the way to the 

 eyrie was as a high road compared to this via 

 diaholica. 



At last Simon sees I can go no further, and 

 signing to me to sit down on a spot to which 

 it requires all the energies of ten trembling 

 fingers to cling to keep vc\j position, dis- 



