CHAPTER V 



IN GURWAL 



IN March I had to go to a hill station, Chakrata, 

 within a day's ride of Mussoorie, to study for my 

 promotion examination. It was glorious weather, 

 and from our windows we looked across the hills 

 to the countless snow-peaks dazzling white 

 against the blue sky. Even my studies, I fear, 

 could hardly chain my thoughts from this glorious 

 shikar ground. Day by day we had to study the 

 weighty pages of the " Manual of Military Law," 

 till at last we knew to a penny how much the 

 dissolute soldier who has got drunk three times 

 in a month should be fined. We knew exactly 

 how to treat the offender whose demeanour 

 caused all beholders to become alarmed and even 

 despondent. We sketched the country for miles 

 around, discovering " contours " in places where 

 their existence had never previously been even 

 suspected. One, I remember, to the consterna- 

 tion of the owner, was found under a fat bunnia's 

 shop. We, in imagination, put the church in 



48 



