A BARREX VICTORY. 219 



into the eyes of tlie tliieves, while Moore charged down 

 the hill with the point of his ice-axe dii*ected full at their 

 stomachs, and Francois lent the weight of his elej)han- 

 tine bulk to the united onset. After Tucker had been 

 rolled down the embankment on which the skirmish took 

 place, and some dozen blows had been planted fairly in the 

 thieves' faces, the foe suddenly fled, and did not stop till 

 they had put the river between themselves and us. We 

 thus remained masters of the field, but the enemy had all 

 the fruits of victory, as they got clear off with their bootj'- ; 

 we consoled ourselves, however, in the smallness of our loss, 

 and in the fact of our retaining a very fine staff which Paul 

 had borrowed, and which afterwards served him as an 

 alpenstock during our whole journey. 



Our next move was to turn tq the chief of the village 

 and ask how it was that he stood by and allowed strangers 

 to be robbed, whilst his own j)eople aided and abetted 

 the thieves ? The only reply of this specimen of nature's 

 nobility was, that if we would give him something for his 

 trouble he would get us back the cloak, an offer which I 

 need hardly say we declined to accept. The looks of the 

 population were not friendly, and we came to the conclusion 

 that it was better to submit to extortion in engaging horses, 

 than by delay to run any risk of further robbery. We 

 consequently agreed with two handsome smartly-dressed 

 fellows to start down the valle}^ at once, with two horses. 

 We were heartily glad to shake the dust of Zacca off our 

 feet, and to feel ourselves once more on the road with 

 only two, instead often, of these impracticable mountaineers 

 to deal with. The valley is treeless, but the sceneiy is far 

 superior to that of the Upper Terek. The slopes are 

 varied and broken, jagged peaks show at the head of 

 lateral glens on the south, and clusters of houses, each 

 dominated by one or more towers, are perched on every 



