in the snow walls.

It was a strange, chill world which they saw. Far as the eye could
reach, nothing but snow, the air frosty and sharp, though the sun was
shining once more. Mirak was keen to snowball, but Roy would not hear of
it; the snow was melting with the faint heat of the mid-day sun, he
said, and a step might make the frost film break, and down into the
powdery drift they might go, never to come up again. So they only stood
looking about them for a few minutes and then prepared to go back.

"Take care, my lord, take care!" cried Roy, as Mirak, who was preparing
to descend legs foremost, as he had been told to do, suddenly looked up
with a face full of mischief, let go with his hands, and pouf!
disappeared down the slippery tunnel like a pea in a pea-shooter. A
burst of laughter from below told them he had arrived safely, and
nothing would suit Bija but to do likewise, Roy being still too tight a
fit to slide quickly. In fact, the children were eager to climb up once
more and do it again, but Head-nurse said she could not hear of it;
their clothes were wet enough as it was; besides, it was most
unlady-like for a real Princess!

The days, therefore, did not pass so uncomfortably, though pressing
anxiety sat on Foster-father's honest face, and every time Roy returned
from a climb up to outer air he would ask him if he had seen anything.

"Nothing," Roy would reply, "and the snow wastes but little, we are so
high up."

At last one night, after the children were asleep, Foster-father
summoned a council of war. It would not be wise, he said, to remain
where they were, without making any effort at escape, until their
provisions were exhausted. Then they would be helpless. Now they still
had enough for two or three days, and it behooved them to make a
push--but whither?

"Not back on our steps," advised Old Faithful. "Firdoos Gita Makani
always said: 'No retreat till there is no advance.' Besides, see you, if
we go down, the snow will be melting and give us no foothold. But at
night the frost will hold on the pass. And it is but little farther to
the next shelter; for, see you, I have come twice this way from
Kandahar; but never the other way back. So my memory of land-marks--if
there be any--would be nothing on the downward journey. But upward it
might come to life. Again, upward there is less chance of missing the
way, as all the valleys converge to the Pass, whereas downward they
spread out in different dire