214 A^ERY MUCH CONFUSE AND SOMEWHAT FATIGUE. 
tLe spy-house, where he sank exhausted upon the soft 
matting, and as we looked back we could see him ges- 
ticulating violently in our direction ; and it caused the 
other half to place his hand indignantly upon his sword 
until Mahomet made a demonstration in his direction, 
when he followed his more bulky companion with alarmed 
activity. Our path Avas crossed by no more mountains 
that day, — many rough hills, and no end of watercourses 
and rocky roads; but no more mountains. Mahomet 
looked as large as two ordinary men after the successful 
accomplishment of this feat, and as we crossed the broken 
waters of the river Inodzu-gama by a bridge of planks 
nailed on the heads of numerous piles, we talked quite 
triumphantly of our victory, and almost Avished that Ave 
had another two-SAVorded officer to exercise upon. 
Our friend “Mahomet” was no other than Lawton; and 
since that kick I have entertained the most profound ad- 
miration for his understanding. 
It was a beautiful valley that we Avere now ascending, 
^wildly beautiful in its strange isolation from the world, 
in its irregular formation, in its short and angular turn- 
ings, in the clear and limpid stream Avhich, flowing 
through its highly-cultivated centre, followed its every 
turning and here and there approached the jutting feet 
of the mountains on either side ; Avildly beautiful in the 
dense and unknoAvn foliage, in grove after grove of the 
A\^ax-like japonica, in the startled flight of brilliant birds, 
in the sudden dash of the mountain-trout, and in the 
shady cottages of the unknown people. 
We had much to see, more to think about, still more 
that Avas lost to us. Who ever yet saw all that Avas AA^orth 
