142 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



up or down ; a bit of rock jutting out above 

 sheltered it from the rain, and a small col- 

 lection of boulders on the outer edge fenced it 

 in and hid its inmates from sight, leaving 

 perhaps three feet in width by seven in length, 

 on which Simon and I had to dispose our- 

 selves for the night. It was a wild bed, and 

 the less you looked over the edge into the 

 precipice below, and calculated on the chance 

 of tossing in your sleep the better you liked 

 it ; but regrets were useless, and as I watched 

 Yassili scrambling down to safer sleeping 

 quarters, I felt I was a fixture until broad 

 daylight came again. Neither Simon nor I 

 spoke. We could not make each other under- 

 stand if we wanted to, and besides, as we 

 watched the light fade, and the stars come 

 out and glisten on the riven snow peaks, so 

 little higher than ourselves, a silence came 

 down upon us that no doubt he felt, as I did, 

 it would be sacrileo-e to break. 



